Welcome to the Isle of Berk
by senoritaxtee
Summary: Dr. Haddock and Dr. Hofferson are paleontologists that specialize in dragons. One of their key funders, Dr. Hammond arrives at their dig-site and offers to fund their dig for a further five years if they will give it their endorsement. They didn't count on the Red Death's mind control ability or that one of InGens employees would wrangle up the DNA and shut down the park...
1. The Dig Site

**Chapter One: The Dig Site**

"Dr. Haddock, Dr. Hofferson, we're ready to try again," one of the interns called to the two paleontologists. Hiccup rolled his eyes as he wiped the dirt off of his hands onto his tattered jeans. Astrid readjusted the bandana across her forehead, her makeshift headband to keep her blonde bangs out of her eyes. As the pair walked towards the tent, Hiccup snaked his arm around Astrid's waist.

The team of interns shot a radio wave into the ground as Dr. Haddock and Dr. Hofferson gathered in front of the computer monitor. Slowly but surely the radio waves bounced off a skeleton of another Night Fury, relaying the fuzzy image onto the computer screen. Hiccup, excited, pointed to a section of the skeleton, but upon touching the screen the computer monitor went blank. "H-hey what happened?"

"You touched it," the intern said as he touched a few buttons on the keyboard, which caused the image to reappear. "Don't touch it."

Hiccup scowled and pointed with his pinky again, being careful not to actually touch the screen. "Look at the size of this one. And take a look at its vertebrae full of air sockets, just like a bird. Look at the pubic bone, turned backwards just like a bird. Astrid, I think our theory might have something to stand on."

"This one's spines are doubled," Astrid observed. "I wonder if that means it's male?"

"Probably helps with maneuverability," Hiccup ventured. "Take a look at his skull, Astrid. There's extra space in his jaws for the teeth, just like the last one. I bet they were retractable."

He continued to oogle over the Night Fury skeleton. "This was definitely the unholy offspring of lightning and death."

"That doesn't look very scary," a child said behind them. "More like an oversize poodle to me."

Astrid forced a small smile and walked over to the kid. "What's your name?"

"Gustav Larson."

"Well, Gustav. I want you to image you're a Viking on Berk." She began to circle the child. "It's the dead of night and the entire village is under attack. The Night Fury is perfectly camouflaged against the night sky. The only warning you have is a shrill sound of its plasma blast charging up just before it strikes. And a Night Fury never missed. Now you're in a clearing and you see this Night Fury land and you stand perfectly still because you think its vision is based on movement like the Nadder. But when you stare at it, it stares right back at you. And before you have time to process, the Night Fury charges a second shot and wham!" Astrid smacked her hands together for effect, "You're blasted ten feet away into a pile of rocks. Dead. You never stood a chance."

"So, try to show a little more respect. Okay?" Gustav gasped out a startled 'okay'. Astrid patted the child on his shoulder before returning to the monitor. "Let's finish with our current Night Fury before we dig this one up." Hiccup nodded.

"You know, Astrid, if you wanted to scare the kid, you coulda just pulled a gun on him," Hiccup said as they walked away from the tent back towards the partially uncovered Night Fury fossil.

Astrid rolled her eyes, "I mean, I guess. Hiccup, you actually want to have one of _those_?"

"Well I don't want _that child_ in particular, but a breed of child could be intriguing."

"Intriguing?" Astrid mocked and Hiccup shrugged. "I dunno, babe. Kids are loud, annoying, expensive, icky…" Hiccup watched her with his eyebrow raised, amused until she said, "And they smell."

"Oh gods, Astrid! They do not smell!"

"Babies smell!"

"Fine. We'll have a kid and call him Icky." Astrid punched her boyfriend in the upper arm. "Ow, must everything be violent with you?"

"It's not violence. It's communication," Astrid replied. "Besides I could have given him a scenario about a Red Death. That woulda done the trick too."

Hiccup rolled his eyes, but smiled. "C'mon, let's see if we can't finish uncovering this Night Fury before the sun sets."

The pair continued to use a variety of brushes to uncover the Night Fury skeleton. "Hey, Astrid," Hiccup ventured. "Do you remember that replica book my uncle got me for Snoggletog the one year?"

"The crazy one-legged, one-armed uncle?" Astrid asked, not looking up from her digging.

"Yeah," Hiccup said. "Anyway, I was reading through it and apparently there were some Vikings that believed that the dragons weren't vicious at all and that they could be trained, the same way a dog can. Maybe that kid wasn't so off-base. Maybe the Night Fury wasn't truly the unholy offspring of lightning and death but really a lovable oversized poodle."

"How would you prove that theory though? Hiccup, we have a better chance proving that the Red Death and the Bewilderbeast had mind control powers. We have to publish something that will help us get funding, so it's gotta be based in facts. Not speculation."

"I know, I know," Hiccup said. "I just think it would have been amazing to have a dragon as a pet. Could you imagine flying?"

* * *

The sun was beginning to set and Hiccup's team was covering the dig site with a tarp to ensure that their progress wouldn't be undone by the unforgiving night winds. One of the interns ran up from the tent, "Dr. Haddock, Dr. Hofferson! There's someone here who says they represent our funders."

"Odin's ghost," Hiccup swore. He glanced at his raggedy green tee shirt and Astrid's blue tank top, both covered in dirt and mud with more holes in their jeans than either of them cared to admit. He and Astrid always tried to look presentable in front of the investors, but this surprise visit would not allow for that. "Tell him…"

"She's already in your trailer waiting for you."

"Sweet baby Thor in a thunderstorm," Astrid exclaimed. "We are so dead." The couple hurried over to the camper to meet the investor. Upon opening up the camper door they saw none other than the eccentric Dr. Joanna Hammond dressed in her usual pure white sundress. Her greying hair was in a high bun and she sat on the counter in the kitchenette area.

"We weren't aware you were coming." "Sorry we are underdressed." "We didn't mean to keep you waiting…" A flurry of excuses and apologizes fluttered out of Hiccup and Astrid's mouths. Hammond simply smiled.

Hammond held up a bottle of champagne she had pulled from the fridge. "Champagne?" she offered and the couple muttered that they had been 'saving it for something special.' "You were saving it for today, I guarantee it."

As Joanna began to pour the champagne she explained her unannounced visit, "I'll get right to the point. I like you, both of you. And I can see my 50,000 a year is well spent. I own an island off the coast of Costa Rica. And I've created a sort of…" Joanna paused for a moment, thoughtfully, not wanting to give everything away at once, "…biological reserve. It's fabulous and I spared no expense."

"You own a lot of islands," Astrid observed, knowing that the billionaire had a certain weakness for spending millions and millions on extravagant and sometimes outlandish investments.

"Yes, well, unfortunately my investors feel that I need some outside opinions before we can open the park fully. And they insisted on you two."

"Why us?"

"Well, you, Dr. Haddock are the most celebrated dragon paleontologist this world has to offer. And you, Dr. Hofferson are unmatched as a paleo-botanist. Combined your expertise are exactly what I need to get back on schedule. I just need you two to come for a 3-day weekend, let's say, take the tour and give the park your endorsement and we'll all get back to our lives." Joanna handed the pair their champagne glasses.

"We really…" "It's just…" "We uncovered a new Night Fury…" "Our interns aren't…"

"I could fully compensate you for the weekend…"

"That's really sweet of you…" "But we really can't leave…"

"And further fund your digs for an additional five years."

Hiccup and Astrid exchanged glances. "Where's the plane?" Astrid asked.

Hammond smiled. "I knew you come around, Dr. Hofferson!"

* * *

Eret sat at a table in the middle of the patio. Upon seeing his second employer he waved and called, "Drago, Drago!" The man frowned and stormed over to Eret's table.

"You shouldn't use my name here," Drago warned.

"Why?" Eret pointed and shouted behind him, "Drago Bludvist! We've got Drago Blud…ah!"

His mockery was cut short as Drago reached across the table and squeezed his massive palm around Eret's neck. "I said, don't use my name." He released Eret forcibly, allowing the poor blighter to gasp for air.

Eret glared at his new employer. "What's with the dragon scaled cape? You trying to look like a super villain?" Drago scowled before presenting Eret with a bottle of shaving cream. He unscrewed the bottom, revealing a secret compartment to store the embryos. "There's enough space to hold all 15 species. The container holds enough coolant inside for 36 hours. Remember you'll be paid extra for the Red Death, Night Fury and the Alpha embryos."

"The Alpha embryos haven't been fully developed yet…" Eret protested.

Drago grabbed Eret's chin and pulled him mere inches from his face, "I said bring me the Alpha embryo." Eret's eyes widened and he nodded feverishly.

The waiter came by with the check, and Eret glanced at it quickly before saying, "Don't get cheap on me, Drago. That was Hammond's mistake."

Drago begrudgingly took the check, paid enough cash including tip, but before leaving he took Eret's fork and stabbed the unsuspecting InGen employee's hand. "That's the last time you order me around. The next time it will be your head."


	2. The Isle of Berk

Hiccup and Astrid climbed into the InGen chopper behind Joanna Hammond. A man in his forties sat in the chopper already. He was dressed in a grey suit. Hammond gestured grandly towards the man, "This is Donald Genaro. He is my blood-sucking lawyer hell-bent on shutting me down. Genaro, this is Dr. Haddock and Dr. Hofferson."

"Thank you for that wonderful introduction, Joanna."

Another young man, big, chubby and red in the face, squealed with excitement upon hearing the two famous paleontologists' names. "Oh my gods, this is amazing. I mean, I knew that they were sending experts to survey the park, but I didn't think you two would be here!" He extended his hand to Hiccup and shook it feverishly, "My names Ian, but people call me Fishlegs."

"You can't get them to stop?" Astrid raised an eyebrow.

"I've read both of your books, like, seven times. And I think it's super fantastic that you elected to pay tribute to the Viking culture by calling all the dragons by their Viking-given names rather than the scientific names."

Hiccup awkwardly smiled, flattered but always unaccustomed to responding to fans. "Y-yeah well 'Red Death' is easier to spell than Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus."

"So are you a student?" Astrid asked.

"Yeah. I'm studying dragonology at the University of California, Berkeley. They're ranked #3 in the nation for their paleontology and dragonology programs. This is my last year. I was actually hoping to apply to one of your internships for the summer." Fishlegs muttered the last part under his breath.

Joanna leaned over to the lawyer. "I brought scientists, you brought a silly fan-boy who's gonna spend more time oogling over Hofferson and Haddock than surveying the park properly." Genaro frowned, dumbfounded by the accusation. He had thought that Fishlegs would be a good addition to the team as he was the top mind at his university. Genaro didn't have time to respond properly as the island came into view and Joanna practically leapt from her seat.

"There it is!" she smiled as the lush green landscape came into view. She quickly sat back down, straightened her sundress, and buckled her seatbelt. "You're gonna want to strap yourselves in. We've got a small landing strip so the descent's kinda bumpy." The group nodded and buckled their seatbelts just before the first turbulent surged. "Yahoo!" Joanna winked. "First of many exciting moment this weekend."

Genaro was less than convinced. "Listen, Joanna, let's get one thing straight. This isn't some gallivanting weekend excursion. This is a serious investigation of the stability of the island. In three days' time if they're not convinced, I'm not convinced. I'll shut you down."

"In three days' time, I'll be accepting your apology," Hammond said, continuing to look out the window.

The chopper landed and the group was greeted by a pair of gas-powered Jeeps. On the doors of the Jeeps was a logo that read "Isle of Berk" with the silhouette of a Night Fury inside. Fishlegs, Hiccup and Astrid climbed into the second Jeep as Joanna and Genaro climbed into the first one. As the Jeeps began to drive towards the Visitor's Center, Genaro said, "The family of that worker is suing you for 1.5 million, Joanna. I would think you would be a little more concerned about the stability of your park. This isn't like your preserve in Kenya."

"Donald, don't worry. The Red Death wasn't fully grown to control the dragons properly when that incident occurred. Everything is fine now."

"The Red Death can control other dragons?"

Joanna smiled, "My dear boy, you have so much to learn about dragons. The Red Death emits a sort of a homing beckon which keeps the dragons on the island. It also calms them down. Plus we have Hobblegrunts now too, which can calm other dragons. I don't think you give my scientists enough credit when it comes to safety and stability. I don't want a dangerous island. I don't want illusions. I want to amaze people from all walks of life."

"And if the dragon were to tell the other dragons to…"

"Donald, try to relax and enjoy yourself. Trust me, dragons are wonderful, amazing creatures. They aren't the bloodthirsty scoundrels we read about in novels."

As the Jeeps drove through some of the lush landscape towards a clearing, Astrid reached out and grabbed a large leaf from a nearby tree. She studied it carefully, thoroughly confused. "Hiccup, this species has been extinct for at least 1000 years, there's no way it should, could, be here."

Joanna motioned frantically to her driver to stop the car, which in turn lead the second car to stop as well. Hiccup glanced around, confused as to why they stopped in the middle of the… "Oh my gods, Astrid," he was pointing out the driver's side of the Jeep, but Astrid was far too focused on her plant. He grabbed her head and forcibly turned it to look out the window. She scowled at the motion, but immediately joined him in his awe-struck face.

Hiccup climbed out of the car and slowly approached the tree where the owl-like dragon was hanging upside down. He rotated his entire head around to look at the two humans. One eye blinked, then the other. Hiccup turned around to face Astrid while gesturing up at the tree, "It's a…it's a d-dragon. It's a Stormcutter."

Joanna had climbed out of her Jeep as well to join the pair. Hiccup and Astrid were grinning ear to ear, and Joanna Hammond smiled as she watched them. This was the exact reaction she was hoping for. It trumped the grins of the children seeing the lions in Kenyan's preserve.

The Stormcutter rotated his head back to his normal position and abruptly took off from the tree. Astrid and Hiccup instinctively ducked as the large dragon beat its four wings above them. "Hiccup, look, it can hover! We were right!" After a few seconds of hovering, the Stormcutter flew away and perched itself in a tree on the other side of the lake.

Genaro, staying in the car, gasped, "We're gonna make a fortune on this place."

Astrid pointed to a herd of Hobblegrunts near the edge of the lake. "Can we?" Joanna smiled and nodded, gesturing for them to approach the herd. She and Hiccup moved toward the Hobblegrunts carefully. As they got close, the frills of the Hobblegrunt changed from yellow to purple. "Purple, what's purple?"

"Curious, I think," Hiccup said, trying to recall what he had read in the book from his uncle. "Do you, do you think I can touch it?"

"If you're sure purple doesn't mean angry, sure," Astrid replied.

Hiccup continued to approach the dragon slowly, with his left hand outstretched. When he was only a few steps away, Hiccup stopped and inhaled sharply. The Hobblegrunt tilted his head before nuzzling his nose against Hiccup's palm. Hiccup gasped and turned to Astrid, "He's warm." Astrid joined her boyfriend and petted the Hobblegrunt. The dragon's scales changed from purple back to yellow. "What my mom would've given to have seen this…" Hiccup whispered.

Joanna said as she approached the pair and the dragon, "Yellow is happy."

Hiccup turned to Hammond and asked, "How do you keep them from flying away from the island?"

Hammond responded, "Well we have a Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus. She emits a homing signal that prevents them from leaving."

"W-wait, you have a what?"

"A Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus," Hammond smiled. "A Red Death."

"Oh gods," Hiccup said. Astrid grabbed Hammond's upper arm and looked her square in the eye, "Say again."

Joanna laughed, "Yes, Dr. Haddock. My dear Dr. Hofferson… We have a Red Death."

"They have a Red Death," Hiccup gasped, clutching his head. "You have a Red Death."

"How did you do this?"

Hammond gestured towards the Jeeps. "I'll show you."


	3. Our Target Audience

**Chapter Three: The Target Audience**

The gas powered Jeeps pulled up to the Visitor's Center. Joanna led the way up the stairs and through the double doors that were furnished with intricate Norse symbols. In the lobby the group was greeted by a huge Skrill skeleton that oversaw a circular desk marked "Information." There was a huge mosaic mural to their left of a variety of different dragon species. Hiccup secretly hoped that they would get to see all of the species represented in the mural.

"So normally we would bring you to our Ampitheatre to show you our miracle of cloning video hosted by Mr. DNA, but as it stands it's one of the attractions not quite ready yet. I have top of the line animators on the project—spared no expense." Hammond spoke as she climbed the stairs.

Hammond motioned to the large glass windows, which displayed a group of scientists and geneticists in white lab coats working with ostrich eggs, virtual reality and gene sequencing computers. "This whole park is thanks to the miracle of cloning and the hard work of our geneticists. We've extracted blood from fossilized amber with mosquitoes inside. Of course it's not an entire genetic sequence; it's full of holes. So our geneticists use those virtual reality and gene sequencers to see what the gaps are in each sequence."

"What exactly do you do about the gaps? You can't just create dragon genes out of thin air," Fishlegs pointed out.

"Right you are, and, gods I wish I had this Mr. DNA video to show you, he explains it so much better than I can…" At the top of the stairs stood a brunette in a white lab coat. "Ah, Heather!" Hammond smiled at the young woman.

"Doctors, this is Heather, our lead geneticist."

Heather smiled at the group, "Frog DNA," she said simply and the whole group looked at her, confused. "You asked what we do about the holes in the DNA strands. We've used the complete DNA of a frog to fill in the holes so that we can make baby dragons." She swiped her card against the digital pad to allow them access to the cloning area.

Hiccup jerked his head around the room, trying to take everything in. Astrid covered her mouth with one hand to hide her laughter at his kid-in-the-candy-store behavior. There were makeshift nests all around the room. "Each nest contains a different species. Gronckles, Nadders, Zipplebacks," Heather pointed to each nest as they passed them. The eggs were in straw in a circle. In the center of the nest was a pool of steaming water. A mechanical arm was set on a track around the perimeter of the nest and was able to access all the eggs to turn them and push them into the water when the time was right.

A loud beep echoed through the room. "Ah perfect timing. You'll get to see some dragons hatch," Heather explained as she lead them over to one of the nests. The mechanical arm began pushing all of the iridescent eggs into the water, and the paleontologists exchanged confused glances. The dragons hatched from their eggs beneath the water, somewhat violently. Hiccup stood too close to the nest and blocked the path of the mechanical arm from the last egg…which promptly exploded, knocking Dr. Haddock onto his ass.

"The eggs explode?" Astrid asked, incredulously as she helped Hiccup back to his feet.

"Yes," Hammond replied. "Which is why the nests are set up this way. We're taking all of the necessary precautions." Hammond stroked one of the newly hatched dragons, cooing at it. The dragon sneezed and its camouflaged scales kicked in, making it disappear from sight entirely.

"It's a Changewing!"

Heather looked at the clipboard next to the nest to confirm. "Yes, this species is a Changewing."

"Do you have adult Changewings on the island already? Are they hostile?"

"Extremely. They should be destroyed," a new male voice said as he entered the room.

"This is Snotlout, my best game keeper from my Kenya preserve. Bit of an alarmist, I'm afraid, but I couldn't afford _not_ to have him here."

Hiccup and Astrid shook hands with Snotlout, who winked at Astrid and kissed her hand. She twisted his arm backwards and warned, "Changewings won't be the only hostile beings here if you continue down that path."

Fishlegs smiled nervously at the exchange. Hiccup pinched the bridge of his nose. "More _communication_, milady?" Astrid bent Snotlout's arm back just a little further before releasing him.

Hammond clapped her hands together "Now then, our chefs have set out a lunch for you before you set out into the park on the official tour. I have top of the line chefs…sp—"

"Spared no expense?" Astrid smirked and Hammond shrugged and nodded.

* * *

As the group sat down to eat in the private lunchroom—a suite that would be designated for special events and guests to book ahead of time as Hammond had explained to the group. "Not all of the attractions are ready of course. And not all of our species are fully grown to be on the safari or even the basic tour. Some of our…less friendly dragons are on the basic tour because we needed some additional security. Then other, more docile, species like the Stormcutters and the Hobblegrunts are on the safari where people can take gas-powered Jeeps to ride up close and personal with the dragons. It's going to be truly spectacular."

Genaro said, "And we can charge anything we want. Two thousand a day, even ten thousand a day and people will pay it. And then there's the merchandise too…"

Hammond put her hand up to stop the lawyer in his tracks, "Donald, this wasn't meant to cater only to the super rich. I want every child in the world to be able to experience what life was like for a Viking on Berk."

"That's what coupon days and lotteries are for, Joanna."

"Well, um," Fishlegs spoke up, and Hammond gestured for him to continue. "Don't you guys see the danger in all of this? You're playing as gods. And what's more, you don't have any humility at the power you're wielding."

"Now hold on, I don't think your giving my scientists their due credit. They're doing something that nobody has ever done before."

"Yeah, but, but I think that they were too busy trying to see if they _could_ that they didn't stop to think if they _should_."

"Tigers. Tigers are on the verge of extinction. If I was to create a bunch of tigers on this island, you wouldn't be able to be upset."

"Hold on," Astrid said. "This isn't about some species that is going extinct because of poachers and deforestation. Dragons had their shot and no one knows why they went extinct. I have to agree with Fishlegs. I mean, we," she gestured to herself and Hiccup, "had no idea that dragon eggs exploded when they hatched and our lives are built around these creatures. If we didn't know about that tiny detail, can you image what huge facts you could be missing? Things that could save, or end, lives?"

Genaro's excitement for the park immediately vanished. The looming lawsuit from the dead worker's family plagued the back of his mind. Astrid continued, "You have plants in this very building that are poisonous to humans and there were some on the safari that are poisonous to dragons. You picked them because they look good or because your scientists did _some_ of the research and saw that those plants were present on Berk and the Barbaric Archipelago during the time of the Vikings and dragons."

Hammond gestured to Hiccup. "Dr. Haddock if there's one person that can appreciate what it is I'm trying to do here, it has to be you. I mean if your mother could see this…"

Diplomatically, Hiccup responded, "I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but the last time a dragon and a man lived together, that was thousands of years ago. All we have to go on are speculations, theories, and fossils. Fishlegs is right, dragons just mysteriously disappeared and no one knows why. And Astrid has a good point, if _we_ didn't know something, then that should probably be a little red flag for your park. What if there's a bigger reason for their disappearance, something we haven't considered? How could we have the slightest idea what to expect?"

"I don't believe this!" Hammond exclaimed. "You're supposed to defend me from him and the only person I have on my side is the blood-sucking lawyer."

"Thank you, Joanna," Genaro scowled at the name-calling.

One of the staff approached Hammond and whispered in her ear. "Well, we'll have to leave the review session until after the tour is complete. I do honestly want to hear your reviews, but _they're_ here." She stood up, straightened her sundress and walked towards the lobby once again.

Fishlegs, Hiccup, Astrid and Genaro shrugged and followed Hammond out to the lobby. "You four will be spending some time in the park with our target audience," Joanna spoke as she descended the stairs. The doors of the Visitor's Center opened to revealed two preteen blondes wearing Viking hats. The twins shouted, "Grandma!" and practically tackled Dr. Hammond. Hammond laughed and asked them about the gifts.

"Wait, we got gifts? I thought the helicopter ride was the gift!" The boy said, confused. His sister palmed his face and shoved him backwards. She gestured to the new helmets, stuck her tongue out and mumbled "duh" to her twin. The twins began a mini slap-fest, but Joanna pushed the two apart at arms' length.

"These are my grandchildren—my daughter's kids. This is Timmy and Lex, but their mom calls them Tuff and Ruff because they're both a little rough around the edges and tough as steel," Hammond introduced her grandkids.

"I can't wait to see the dragons, Grandma!"

"Yeah! Me too! I wanna see them blow stuff up!"

"Do you think I can get them to set Tuff on fire?"

"They can only set me on fire if we have a proper sacrifice ritual first."

"That can be arranged."

"Okay, if it's for science. What time should we have the sacrifice?"

Astrid's mouth hung open as the twins chattered on at a mile-a-minute. Hiccup pulled her close and kissed her forehead, "That Gustav kid from the digsite is looking pretty good right about now, huh, milady?" Astrid glared at her boyfriend and elbowed him playfully in the ribs.

The group stepped outside the Visitor's Center and were greeted by a pair of electric-powered Jeeps. Joanna explained that these Jeeps ran on the track in the middle of the road and, like everything else in the park, were top of the line. "The audio tour selects the appropriate information automatically. We had Morgan Freeman read the entire tour, spared no expense."

Before they could enter the cars, Snotlout and Heather drove up beside the electric-powered Jeeps in one of the gas ones. Heather said to Hammond, "We're going to check on the Nadders again. The surveillance cameras are picking up some out-of-character behavior on one of the female Nadders." In the back of the Jeep sat two tranquilizer guns and one assault rifle that Snotlout assured Hammond was "just in case."

Snotlout and Heather drove off, allowing the group to enter the cars. Fishlegs, Hiccup and Astrid rode in the second car, while Ruff, Tuff and Genaro rode in the first car. Hammond hurried back inside to start the tour program, eager to have their first official tour underway. Despite the paleontologists' initial concerns, she was sure that by the end of the weekend that they would have nothing but raving reviews and five star ratings to give her dragon park.


	4. Eret's White Rabbit

**Chapter Four: Eret's White Rabbit**

"There she is," Heather pointed to their 3 o'clock. "I think she's sick."

"Is that the same damned dragon?" Snotlout said as he threw the car in park and shut down the engine. "It's _always_ sick. Can't I….?"

"Hammond will kill you if you hurt one of his dragons and you know it. And it wouldn't be done with mercy either."

Snotlout frowned but knew Heather was right. He adjusted his hat and grabbed the tranquilizer. As he aimed to tranquilize the Nadder a shrill sound echoed above them. Heather gasped and pushed Snotlout down to the floor of the Jeep, "Night Fury, get down!"

In the awkward position on the floor of the car, Snotlout said, "You know, if you wanted to be closer to me you could have just asked."

Heather rolled her eyes, "Listen, Snotlout, the Night Fury is the 'unholy offspring of lightning and death itself'. Of all the eggs we've genetically modified for its species, only one has survived. The only thing more difficult to recreate has been the Alpha. And that Night Fury escaped the lab two days after hatching. We don't know what it's capable of. Now go tranquilize the Nadder please so I can do my job!"

"Jeez all right, all right. I'm tranquilizing!" Snotlout said, then added under his breath, "And Joanna thinks _I'm _the alarmist."

"Oh my gods, Ruff, LOOK!"

"It's a ghost!"

"It's Loki's ghost!"

"Do you think he'll drive us off course and we'll die?"

Genaro glanced nervously at the twins in the back seat. He could understand why Hammond wanted the "target audience" to be present for the first tour ever on the Isle of Berk, but the twins were making him extremely nervous.

Ruff pointed ahead to the enormous wooden gates. There were torches lit up the sides of the gates and above it, it read _Isle of Berk_. "Do you think we're going to hit that, Mr. Lawyer?" Ruff asked as the voice of Morgan Freeman said, "_Welcome to the Isle of Berk_." The gates opened and the cars passed into the park without incident.

The electric powered cars rode past the first enclosure on their tour. "_On your left you will see the first dragon on our tour. The Vikings called it the Hideous Zippleback…" _Morgan Freeman's voice read aloud.

In the second car, the over-eager paleontologists smooshed themselves against the windows, trying desperately to get a glimpse as the audio tour guide continued, "_This dragon is part of the Mystery Class and has two of everything, except for a body. The head on the right breathes a green, flammable gas, which the Zippleback may use to hide itself while the other head creates a spark to ignite the gas, which makes the Zippleback a unique, but deadly additional to the Isle of Berk_."

"Did you know that the Zippleback could light themselves on fire just like the Nightmares could? They'd bite their own tails and become a flaming wheel, how cool is that?" Fishlegs asked excited and unphased by not seeing the actual dragon. Hiccup and Astrid on the other hand tried to hide their disappointment and returned to their seats as the cars moved onto the next attraction.

"_Next on our tour is the Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus. The Vikings called this dragon a Red Death. She was considered the Queen of all dragon nests, especially with her homing ability to control smaller dragons…"_

The cars stopped in front of the large enclosure. Hammond called over the intercom to the cars, "We're going to try to entice her out. Keeping watching the fence." As she spoke a black sheep bleated as it was released into the enclosure on a short chain.

"She's gonna eat the goat? Excellent!" The twins said in unison.

The group watched for several more minutes before the car engines started again. Hammond again spoke over the intercom, "We have to loop back around anyway, and hopefully she'll be out on your way back to the Visitor's Center."

As the cars continued, Astrid asked Fishlegs about his studies and other academic pursuits. Hiccup knew that she was secretly screening him for the internships as he had expressed interest on the helicopter ride. Although Astrid was a tough interviewer and a tougher critic, she did have the best sense of judgment when it came to taking on interns. In all of their years, they only had three interns that they had to send back. All three of course were ones that Hiccup had chosen to hire. Naturally, he was not allowed to do the hiring any more.

Hiccup spotted something outside of the window. He climbed out of the car and ventured towards it. Astrid and Fishlegs climbed out of the car after him. "Babe, do you see something?"

Ruff and Tuff saw the adults climb out of the car and decided to tuck and roll out of their own car, much to the dismay of Genaro. Although it was slightly daring, the move did allow the twins to come up completely unscathed as they hurried after Dr. Haddock and Dr. Hofferson. The same couldn't be said for Genaro, who less-than-gracefully fell out of the moving car and tried desperately to catch up to the group.

_Meanwhile in the Control Room, Hammond shouted at Eret, "We need locking mechanisms on the car doors! How many times have I told you that? You have butter fingers, Eret?"_

_"I am so under-appreciated here," Eret muttered. "I am the greatest hacker and computer engineer alive."_

_"Just stop the tour program, please!"_

The group heard a growling in the distance. Hiccup motioned for them to stay put as he climbed through the tall grass ahead. Astrid's curiosity got the best of her and she ventured behind her boyfriend to see Heather with a downed Nadder. "It's okay," Heather said. "Snotlout tranquilized her for me. She's sick."

Astrid walked up to the Nadder and placed her palm on its snout. She smiled, "Hiccup, she was my favorite as a kid and now I can see her for real….she's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen!" Hiccup smiled warmly as he petted the dragon. He ran his hands up her spines and rested his palm on her stomach, feeling the even inhalations and exhalations of the dragon. "What's wrong with her?" Astrid asked Heather.

"We're not sure," Heather said. "It keeps happening, but only to the dragons on the safari that frequent this area."

"Do you think it's because of the Blue Oleander flower in the area?"

"No. We know they're toxic, but the animals don't eat them."

"The Blue Oleander doesn't need to be eaten though, it can make the dragons sick if they're just in the same area. What are her symptoms?"

"Irregular heartbeat, sneezing, not eating, erratic behavior…"

As Heather and Astrid spoke, the sky began to darken and thunder boomed. "Doctors, if you please. I have to request we get back to the cars," Genaro said.

"Oh if it's okay, I'd like to spend a little more time with the Nadder," Astrid said.

Heather said, "I'm in a gas powered Jeep. Snotlout left me with it and walked back to check on the Changewing enclosure. I can drive her back to the Visitor's Center when we're done."

Hiccup nodded and the group returned to the cars, which were thankfully not too far ahead as Hammond had stopped the program.

* * *

Eret Nedry, son of Eret Nedry, was not lying when he said he was the greatest computer engineer on the planet. He had been hacking since he was twelve, when his father decided to send him to a boarding school to try to get him to pursue more legal endeavors involving computers. After a few years of constant trouble, his father didn't think that his son would amount to anything worthwhile and pulled him completely out of school at sixteen and left him at a shelter in the North.

To his credit, Eret had made the entire island so that you could run it on minimum staff for three weeks straight, should anything ever happen. And he had been creating back-ups for security systems from day one. After creating the top-of-the-line security system to keep the dragons in their correct enclosures (without upsetting any animal rights activists) he had declared himself the greatest dragon trapper alive.

Eret was expensive too, even by Hammond's standards. His ego is something she could do without. And his lack of authority towards her, that was another thing she could do without. What she couldn't do without; however, was his abilities. She _needed_ him for this island. The park wouldn't be able to function without him. But she wouldn't give him another raise, not again.

Eret sat in front of his computers, two of them open with lines of code and the third open to his email and various Microsoft Word documents. He copied the document _White _ into the lines of code and saved it for later. Amongst the clutter on his desk was a bottle of shaving cream, which he glanced at periodically.

He ran a test of the program, careful to not make it too noticeable, and smiled when it worked successfully. Eret glanced up at the team in the Control Room. "I'm going to the vending machine to get some soda, anyone want anything?" The team all shook their heads. "Oh and I debugged the phones and the headlights on the cars. You asked me to do that, so I did, and you should know that as it runs a system reboot some minor systems might shut off and turn back on. It's nothing to worry about. Completely routine maintenance."

As he left the control room, he used a remote clicker to start the program and sync his watch to it. A countdown started on the bottom right corner of all three screens. _5 minutes…_

He would need to hurry to get the embryos. Subconsciously he rubbed his bandaged hand where Drago had stabbed him. He figured that if he didn't get all the embryos, not only would he not get paid, but Drago Bludvist would probably crucify him as well.

_4 minutes…_

It didn't matter though. It a few more minutes, Drago's company would catch up on a decade's worth of research and Eret would have all the money he ever needed.

_3 minutes…_

He would quit InGen and hire a private investigator to find his mother. There was a brief period where he had hoped to find his father, a brief period.

_2 minutes…_

Several of the less important systems like phones and projectors in the lobby started to go off. Hammond pointed to the computer, "Odd. Systems are failing…"

_1 minute…_

"No, Eret said some of the systems would turn themselves off and then back on. Look, phones are back…oh maybe not…it'll be fine."

_30 seconds…_

"I'll show you who's won't amount to anything…I will be the greatest hacker alive, and the richest. While you're probably sleeping in garbage by now with all of your failed comic books and inventions," Eret muttered to no one in particular.

_5…4…3…2…1…_

Everything in the Control Room went black.


	5. Red Death

**Chapter Five: Red Death**

[a/n] I changed the rating to T, just to be safe since JP is rating PG-13 and HTTYD is rating PG.

Astrid walked over to Snotlout to hand him a flashlight. He scoffed, "I'm not afraid of the dark," and Astrid thrust the flashlight into his chest. Joanna was frantically typing on a keyboard with her own flashlight in her mouth.

"Didn't Eret have back-ups of back-ups?" Heather asked. "So _where_ are the back-up generators?"

"Sthe back-uphs only power sho many shthings," Joanna said, flashlight still in her mouth. "Holdth on. I'm sfixing it." After typing a few more commands into the keyboard the secondary power kicked in. She removed the flashlight from her mouth and scowled at the foul taste it left in her mouth. Hammond pointed to Heather, "Go check the vending machines. I'm going to murder Eret. I ask him time and time again to debug the headlights and the phones and he waits until we have visitors and a tropical storm on the island to do so. Of all the irresponsible things…"

Heather didn't wait for Hammond to finish her rant. Snotlout asked, "So what's supported on the emergency power?"

"The computers in this room," Hammond replied. "The secondary power supports more—the charging station for the cars, most of the electricity in the Visitor's Center. Still not much. We're not supposed to have to use it."

"The fences aren't?" Snotlout jumped to his feet. "What about the Changewings?"

Hammond pulled up a map of the Island. Fences were blinking red—in failure—all over the park. She shook her head, "No, the Changewing fences are supported on a separate generator. They're still on." Joanna silently thanked Arnold, one of her computer engineers, for disobeying her by putting the Changewings on a completely separate generator after their little mishap with the InGen worker.

"Why would Eret turn the other ones off?" Astrid asked. "And where did the tour stop?"

"The Red Death enclosure."

"Oh gods."

"I highly doubt anything will happen," Snotlout said and Astrid rolled her eyes. "The only dragons that routinely check the stability of the fences are the Changewings. The other animals get shocked once, maybe twice and then leave the fence alone."

Hammond added, "A few have tried to set them on fire, but the wires are fire-proof—spared no expense. They won't even think to check the fences anymore."

* * *

It was a good thing that Genaro had suggested they get back in the cars when he did. The rain was beating heavily against the windows of the cars. Fishlegs opened the car door briefly and held a canteen outside to catch some rainwater. He drank some and then offered it to Hiccup, who graciously took it.

"So what got you into dragons, Dr. Haddock?"

Hiccup shrugged, "My mother mostly. My family is of Viking decent, so I grew up with the stories. My mother was an animal conservationist, but she used to tell me these extravagant stories about the dragons. She always wanted to see a dragon…her favorite was the Stormcutters because it reminded her of our owl."

"You had an owl?"

Hiccup laughed, "Yeah. My dad hated that part of my mom's job. She was always rescuing injured animals and bringing them home. He didn't mind some of the animals, but she would bring home injured wolves and big cats. She was always saying 'they're misunderstood. They're not vicious beasts, but intelligent creatures.' My dad actually built her a second home specifically for the animals. The owl stayed in our home though."

"And you decided to become a dragontologist?"

"Yeah, my dad was upset at first. He still sometimes is, I think. He doesn't approve of all…this."

"You just gestured to all of you!" Fishlegs said and Hiccup nodded. The pair sat in silence for a minute as the rain pattered against the windows. "I used to collect all the dragon trading cards when I was younger," Fishlegs confessed. "And I used to wish and wish that I was of Viking decent."

"So," Fishlegs said, "Do you think you and Dr. Hofferson are going to be out of a job if Hammond's Island really takes flight?"

"I think the word you're looking for is _extinct_," Hiccup smirked.

The cars stopped unexpectedly and Fishlegs held his hands up in defense, "This time it wasn't my fault I swear." Hiccup raised an eyebrow at the grad student. "What? I usually get blamed when things stop working."

"I think the storm knocked out the power. I'm sure Hammond has back-up generators to get us back to the Visitor's Center," Hiccup ventured.

Meanwhile in the other car…

"Boo!" Tuff exclaimed, wearing a pair of night vision goggles. His sister screamed before punching him in the gut.

"Are those heavy?" Genaro asked and Tuff nodded furiously. "Then they're expensive, put them back."

Tuff stuck his tongue out at Genaro and climbed into the back of the car. "Wow. These are so totally awesome! Hey, where's the black sheep?"

Ruff shrugged, "Ten bucks if you can find it."

Tuff nodded, "You're on!" He tossed the night vision goggles aside, much to the dismay of Genaro, who winced as they hit the floor of the car. Ruff rolled her eyes and shook her head, knowing that it would have been easier to find the black sheep with the goggles on in this downpour.

"Uh, do you think the dragon ate it?" Tuff asked.

"What dragon?" Genaro asked.

The twins pointed to the colossal dragon, "That dragon!" The Red Death roared and bit into the wires. Genaro swore and jumped out of the car. The movement caught the Red Death's attention and she blasted a flame towards the scared lawyer, catching his suit jacket on fire. Genaro desperately stripped the jacket off and continuing running towards the trees. The Red Death roared again and with two mighty steps, closed the gap between them and chomped down on the blood-sucking lawyer.

The twins watched the scene unfold. They high-fived, "Excellent." The Red Death turned to face the cars. She nudged the first car with her snout. "Less excellent!" The twins screamed.

"Close the door, close the door!" Ruff shouted to her brother.

The movement of the driver's side door closing caused the Red Death to growl and nudge the car once more. The twins screamed as the dragon flipped the car.

Hiccup and Fishlegs watched in horror as the Red Death continued to attack the car where Ruff and Tuff were. The twins screamed, half excited at the near-death experience they were having and half terrified that they might, well, die in the next ten minutes.

Frantically, Hiccup searched through the glove compartment, the console and finally reached into the trunk of the car to find a set of flares and an additional flashlight. He handed one flare to Fishlegs. "Okay, don't light yours. I'm going to distract the Red Death and you go get the kids out from under the car, okay?" Fishlegs gulped but nodded. "Remember, her vision is based on movement so worse comes to worst, freeze."

Hiccup lit his flare and the pair climbed out of their Jeep. Hiccup began shouting and waving the flare around to get the Red Death's attention. He could see her pupils turn to slits and she snarled as she left the other car to stalk Hiccup. Hiccup waved the flare a few more times, less frantically in order to keep the dragon's attention and then tossed the flare as far away from him as possible. The Red Death's head followed the movement and she shot a blast of fire at the flare. Hiccup stood frozen, praying to Odin that he was right about her vision being based on movement.

Meanwhile, Fishlegs was pulling Ruff out from under the car and trying to keep Tuff calm until he could get to him as well. Once free, Ruff pointed at the dragon and screamed. Fishlegs' eyes widened and he grabbed Ruff, covering her mouth. "Don't move. It can see us if you don't…ow! You bit me!"

The scream had attracted the Red Death's attention once again. Hiccup rolled his eyes, for how intelligent Dr. Hammond was, her grandkids were…just not. As the Red Death turned, her club-like tail smashed into the Jeep next to Hiccup, rolling the car on top of his leg. He bit onto his fist, trying to muffle his own screams as he pushed the car to try to dislodge his foot. As he struggled beneath the weight of the car, a Terrible Terror slinked towards Hiccup and sniffed him. Hiccup tried to shoo the tiny dragon away, but the Terrible Terror just sat next to him and licked its own eyeball.

The Red Death roared and much to their horror, set the car on fire, with Tuff still inside. "Oh my gods," Hiccup gasped as the Red Death picked up the burning car in her mouth and threw it back into her enclosure. Tuff screamed as the car landed in a tree, briefly. The burning car set the branches on fire, weakening their stability. After a few moment the car fell through the branches, crashing violently to the ground. Fishlegs and Ruff watched, helplessly. As the Red Death turned back to face them, Fishlegs hugged Ruff defensively. "Don't move."

With his leg still lodged under the car, Tuff stuck in a flaming car on the other side of a fifty foot mote, and Fishlegs and Ruff standing frozen in front of a 100-foot tall dragon… "Dadada, we're dead," Hiccup muttered to himself, before flopping down into the mud-covered ground.

Fishlegs lit the flare and threw it as far away from them as possible. Unfortunately for Hiccup, that was in his general direction. "Loki's socks, can this get any worse?" As the Red Death sniffed and searched for the flare, she stepped one leg on top of the car, pressing it further onto Hiccup's already broken leg. _Apparently it can. Why do the gods hate me?_

As the Red Death was focused on Hiccup, Fishlegs and Ruff began to use one of the downed power lines to climb down the mote to rescue her twin brother, which left Hiccup to fend for himself in front of the massive Stoker-class dragon. Hiccup had one more flare, which he lit and threw as far away from him as possible. This time, however, the Red Death had grown tired of this trick and merely looked at the flare before returning her gaze to the paleontologist. "Oh come on," he groaned.

The Terrible Terror climbed on top of the car as well. _As if I needed more pressure on my leg._ It snarled at the Red Death. As the Red Death was preoccupied with the tiny dragon, Hiccup reached for the emergency flashlight. He turned it on and aimed it towards the nearby trees. Different than the flare, this had attracted the Red Death's and the Terrible Terror's curiosities. The Terrible Terror flew ahead of the Red Death, but the queen would not tolerate that. In one swoop, she gulped down the Terrible Terror and continued her own search for the light.

Hiccup placed the flashlight in his mouth and continued to push the car. Behind him, the Red Death lit two trees on fire. Hiccup got the car lifted just enough to slide his leg out, but his shoe got caught in the process. He rolled over onto his stomach and attempted to push himself up to standing and promptly fell back into the mud. Desperately he began to army crawl away from the scene towards the bushes, leaving the flashlight on and in the mud by the car. He silently hoped that Fishlegs would be able to get Tuff out of the tree and return to the Visitor's Center safely, but Hiccup knew that with his broken leg he would be more of a hindrance than a help.

The Red Death roared and flew away to another section of the park, Hiccup presumed to find a mountain as that was a more natural habitat for its species than the lush green landscape. Hiccup continued to crawl away in hopes of finding someplace safe…well safer. As he crawled his hand slipped on some moss and he tumbled down into a small pond of water.

"Well that takes care of cleaning the wound," he muttered as he hoisted himself onto the bank. He pulled branches from a nearby bush and used his pocket knife began to make a makeshift splint.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six:**

One of Drago's henchmen stood at the edge of the docks waiting impatiently for Eret to arrive. Eret was late and he was eternally grateful that it was only one of his henchmen and not Drago himself. Eret wanted to be able to spend his fortune with his head still attached to his body, thank-you-very-much.

The henchman extended his hand to shake Eret's. He then asked for the embryos. "In my pocket," Eret responded. "I'm delivering them personally to Drago. Unless you have my payment…" the man shook his head. "Thought not."

"Drago's ship is just out of range of the radar and sonar of the island," the man explained as they boarded his small ship. "This little dingy won't cause any alarm as there were so many workers going home to their families and trying to beat the storm. I watched them board. You have some nice looking co-workers."

"Wouldn't matter anyway. I knocked everything out."

In a matter of minutes, they were next to Drago's ship. Drago lowered a rope ladder, and Eret graciously climbed up it. Not seconds after his feet hit the deck Drago grabbed his neck, "You're late."

"Sorry, Drago," Eret choked out. "I got held up. Couldn't get caught stealing the embryos. Then we'd all be up a creek without a paddle." Drago scowled and held his hand out, demanding the embryos. Eret clutched the shaving cream can possessively. "Nope, money first."

Drago growled and snapped his fingers. Two men came with suitcases and opened them in front of Eret, who smiled. Eret handed over the shaving cream and took both suitcases with ease. Drago unscrewed the false top and inspected the embryos.

"They're alive?"

"Yes, Drago. But not if you keep them open like that," Eret cautioned. "Besides, even if they were dead, you're company will _still_ be ahead of Hammond and InGen. The entire island is under siege right now, no fences, no power and an angry Red Death controlling all of the dragons to attack."

Drago laughed, low and manically while studying the embryos. "Oh ho, I'm just thrilled to know that the dragons live up to their ferocious reputations. I have some extraordinary things plans for them. Terribly extraordinary things." He closed the shaving cream can and tossed it to one of his men. Drago glanced up at Eret, "You're still here," he frowned and nodded to the two men to his left. Drago turned away from Eret and began to walk towards his cabin.

The men grabbed Eret by his upper arms and tossed him off the side of the ship. "Hey! What about my money?" He shouted as he struggled to tread water. Drago stalked back over to the edge of the ship and tossed the two suitcases overboard. Eret grabbed onto one case, using it as a buoy. "You can't drop me off?"

"That wasn't part of the deal," Drago replied before signaling to his crew to start the engines.

* * *

In the Control Room, Joanna and Arnold—one of her computer engineers—were trying to fix the electrical problems from Eret's station. After not being able to find Eret, Joanna had decided that their best bet was to get the Isle of Berk back online so that they could call for help. Arnold, as usual, was smoking incessantly, but Hammond didn't have the patience to reprimand him right now. Getting her park back online and making sure everyone was safe was taking precedent to Arnold's irritating smoking habit. Astrid, Snotlout and Heather were gathered around behind the pair, watching the computer screens.

Arnold pecked away at the keyboard, going back through the old lines of code that Eret had set up. With the cigarette still in his mouth he muttered, "Access main program." The computer screen blinked: _Access denied._ "Access main security." Again the computer screen blinked: _Access denied._ "Access main program grid." A third time the computer screen blinked: _Access denied._

The third attempt had tripped Eret's hacker-proof system. An image of Eret himself appeared on the computer saying, "You didn't say the magic word."

Arnold screamed at the computer, "PLEASE! Goddammit, I hate this hacker crap." A few keystrokes later he had removed the irritating image from the screen and went back to trying to get the Isle of Berk back online, this time being careful to type _please_ before each command he entered into the system.

"Here look at this," Arnold pointed to the screen and Joanna overeagerly hovered over his shoulder. "_Keycheck off, Safety off,_" Arnold explained, "He turned the keystrokes off. He didn't want anyone to see what he was about to do. Now here's the kicker, this 'white rabbit object', whatever that did, it did it all. But Eret turned the security systems off so no one could see what he was doing. Without the security on, the computer didn't file any of the keystrokes."

Arnold typed: _Find White ._ The computer flashed back: _OBJECT NOT FOUND IN LIBRARIES. _"And it looks like the search isn't working. So now the only way to find out what he did is to go through the computer's line of code, one by one."

"How many lines of code are there?" Heather asked, silently praying that there were less lines of code than there were in her DNA sequences in the lab.

"About two million." So much for that hope.

Joanna turned to Snotlout, "I wonder, if you would be so kind as to take a gas-powered Jeep and bring me back my grandchildren."

Snotlout nodded. "I'm going with him," Astrid announced.

"I don't need your help to pick up his grandkids," Snotlout retorted.

Astrid raised her hand to slap him. "I'm coming with you so I can make sure Hiccup's okay, you ass."

* * *

Ruff launched herself off of Fishlegs' back as they approached the ground. She landed somewhat gracefully before rushing over to the car, where the heavy rain had quelled the flames. "Timmy!" she shouted as she skid on the muddy terrain. "I didn't really mean it, Tim! We don't have to sacrifice you to the dragons."

As she peered inside the car her twin brother looked up at her. He had a gash on his forehead and he looked somewhat dazed. "Aw, you _do_ care." After a pause he asked, "Do you think Grandma is gonna be mad? I broke her night vision goggles."

"Uh, you broke her car, idiot!"

"No, the _dragon_ broke the car. She set it on fire. _I_ didn't do that. I fell on the goggles and smashed them," Tuff reasoned as he crawled out of the car.

As soon as Tuff was standing his sister embraced him tightly, "I don't hate that you're not dead."

Tuff returned the embrace, "Me too. I don't hate you either." The twins bashed their helmets together.

Fishlegs watched the odd exchange and silently wondered if Joanna had gotten them the helmets because they routinely headbutted each other or if they started doing that after they got the helmets. He didn't dwell on the matter for very long as he remembered that he was pretty strange at fourteen as well. He cleared his throat, "We should probably head back to the Visitor's Center."

"Okay. All in favor of telling Grandma it was Fishlegs' fault the car is destroyed?"

"Me!"

"Sounds good."

"Let's go."

"Wait but I…oh forget it," Fishlegs muttered as he followed the twins.

Snotlout turned the engine off as they approached the Red Death's enclosure. One car was flipped upside down, the wires had been mangled and there was no sign of the other car. Astrid and Snotlout jumped out of the car, flashlights in hand, searching for survivors. "Where's the other car?"

"Where are the _people_?"

Astrid bent down next to the upside down car, shining her flashlight inside in a desperate hope that someone would be unconscious and alive inside. To her dismay, she found Hiccup's ratty shoe stuck in mud, hallway under the car. Her eyes welled up. "Hiccup…"

Snotlout came over to her and place a hand on his shoulder. Instinctively she smashed his fingers. "Ow! What was that for? It wasn't a come-on! I wanted to show you this! Ow, ow…" He pointed to the muddy ground with his flashlight. "Someone army crawled away."

"Sorry," Astrid muttered.

"Yeah you better be sorry," Snotlout said under his breath. He continued searching the area for… "The other car!" He exclaimed, pointing at the bottom of the fifty foot mote.

Astrid shot to her feet and joined Snotlout at the edge of the enclosure. She put her flashlight in her pocket and reached out for one of the downed power lines. Expertly she began to climb down the wall. Snotlout followed as closely as possible. Upon reaching the bottom she shined her flashlight into the car, disheartened at the emptiness inside. She searched around the area and found three sets of footprints leading away from the cars.

"I hope Fishlegs knows as much about dragons as he says he does," Astrid said.

"C'mon, Hammond said his daughter nicknamed the kids Ruff and Tuff because they're tough around the edges and rough as steel."

"I think you have that backwards," Astrid said.

"Whatever. Point is. They'll be fine. Now let's get back to our car before the Red Death comes back."

"Aw, is Snotlout scared?" Astrid mocked.

"No!" Snotlout said, a little took quickly to be convincing. "I mean, of course not," Astrid raised a suspicious eyebrow. "Whatever. Let's go."

[a/n] For those of you anxious waiting, Toothless appears next chapter, promise!


	7. Forbidden Friendship

**Chapter Seven: Forbidden Friendship**

The rain had subsided to just an irritating drizzle. Hiccup's pocket knife was definitely not the most useful tool to be making splits, but it was definitely better than trying to make it with his bare hands. He cut the fabric of his jeans into strips and placed two small branches on either side of his leg. Using the strips of fabric he secured the branches. He winced as he pulled the fabric tighter.

Hiccup slowly tried to stand, but as soon as he put weight on his left foot he collapsed once again. "Okay, guess I need to make crutches too. Thor, this is going to be fun with just a pocket knife and my clothes…"

Behind him a Night Fury watched, perched high on a rock. He rolled his shoulders and crouched into a pouncing position, but upon seeing the human fall in pain a second time he withdrew and cocked his head to the side. He watched a few moments more before flying off into the night. The human was injured and needed help; he was sure of it.

As Hiccup continued making a crutch, a Night Fury landed a few feet in front of him. "Oh gods," Hiccup whispered as he crab-crawled backwards away from the dragon. The Night Fury slinked forward, eyes narrow slits as he sniffed the human. "I-I don't have anything for you." The Night Fury loomed over Hiccup briefly before regurgitating a fish, well half a fish, into Hiccup's lap. "Argh, that's disgusting! Why would you do that?"

The Night Fury sat back on its haunches and looked back and forth between the fish in Hiccup's lap and the injured human. Hiccup picked the fish up and went to toss it away, but the Night Fury bared its teeth and assumed a more predatory position. Hiccup's mouth hung open in astonishment. He inhaled sharply and slowly brought the raw, half-eaten, regurgitated fish to his mouth. He bit into the fish, but didn't swallow. The Night Fury perked its ears up and its eyes dilated.

He watched the human in anticipation, but when Hiccup didn't swallow the fish the Night Fury wrinkled his nose. Maybe the human needed some encouragement. He made a swallowing motion several times. Hiccup groaned, but didn't want to upset the Night Fury (as he knew better than most what a Night Fury could be capable of), and begrudgingly he swallowed the fish. Hiccup shook his head in disgust, sticking his tongue out with a grossed-out "blergh." To his surprise, the Night Fury seemed extremely pleased with itself. He sat in front of Hiccup, wiggling his butt in anticipation.

"Uh, thanks, bud," Hiccup said, forcing a small smile. The Night Fury narrowed his eyes, studying the foreign gesture before slowly recreating his own gummy version of the smile. Hiccup's eyes lit up, "Toothless! You're teeth, are they retracta—ow!" In his excitement, Hiccup had jumped up, forgetting about his leg. Silly, injured human.

As he sat back on the moss-covered ground, Hiccup studied the Night Fury. Hiccup reached out his hand to try to pet the Night Fury, just as he had done with the Hobblegrunts back on the safari. "Hey, Toothless, bud, I won't hurt you…okay…we're not petting you I guess." Toothless had bared his teeth at Hiccup before taking back off.

Astrid wasn't going to believe this. Hiccup wondered if he should even tell her. No, he decided, for she would most definitely hit him for eating a raw fish that was inside a dragon's stomach. Hiccup turned his focus back onto making a sturdy-enough crutch so that he could make his way back to the Visitor's Center. Several minutes after his encounter with the Night Fury, he was satisfied with the walking stick, though his jeans would definitely need to be replaced.

Using the makeshift crutch to support some of his weight, Hiccup hoisted himself up. He inhaled and exhaled. He took one tentative step, then a second.

Safely camouflaged against the dark night sky, the Night Fury flapped its wings as it watched the human slowly and painfully walking. He reached the edge of the cove, and now the Night Fury was truly interested. How would the injured human climb out of the cove?

Hiccup tossed the crutch onto the ledge, mindful to keep all of his weight on his right foot. He reached above his head, trying to find some leverage on the rocks. He pulled himself up and then repositioned his hands, trying to get a little higher. Gods be damned, this was way more difficult than when Astrid took him rock climbing. He placed his left leg in a crevice, wincing slightly as pain shot straight through. Delicately he shifted his weight from his right leg to his left, trying to keep as much of it supported by his hands.

Hiccup pushed himself higher. He grabbed a vine and tested its strength before using it to hoist himself to the top ledge. Upon reaching the top, he flopped down and contemplated his next move. Walking was difficult enough with a broken leg, but getting through the terrain of the park was going to be next to impossible. He inhaled and held his breath as he pulled himself up once more. Slowly, he began to walk towards the Visitor's Center.

Behind him, Hiccup felt a dragon land. Hiccup winced and tensed his shoulders, preparing for the worst. When nothing came, however, he decided to make a break for the tall grass. He grabbed the walking stick in the middle and half-skipped, half-hobbled into the tall grass. The Night Fury cooed and followed Hiccup. This human was fascinating. The Night Fury pushed his head into the tall grass and immediately purred and retracted his teeth. He rolled over onto his back, to the astonishment of Hiccup.

"Well that Gustav kid was kinda right. Not quite a poodle, more like an oversized cat."

Toothless rolled all the way back onto his feet to look at Hiccup. Once again Hiccup tried to touch the Night Fury, who growled, baring his teeth once more. "Okay. I get it. No touching. Just raw fish eating and you stalking me. Because my day just couldn't get worse," he said the last line to the sky in hopes that the gods would hear him.

Without warning Toothless bounded past Hiccup, knocking him down once more. Toothless pounced on the moonlight shimmering through the trees. Hiccup couldn't help but smile. "Well, you're at least going to make this journey interesting, aren't you, bud?"

The moon had begun to set. Hiccup sat down on a rock and rubbed his leg. Toothless perched next to him, "No chance you'd let me ride you, huh, bud?" The Night Fury emitted a low growl from the back of his throat. "Yeah, thought not."

Hiccup picked up a stick nearby and began to idly draw a picture of a Night Fury in the mud. Toothless inched closer to see what he was doing. Hiccup glanced up at the Night Fury, whose head was following every stroke of the stick in the mud. After a few moments, Toothless pushed himself onto his back legs and wobbled over to a sapling. He uprooted the tree; the noise startled Hiccup.

Toothless began to draw in the mud as well, making huge sweeping motions on the ground with the tree. Hiccup spun his head around trying to keep up as Toothless drew his masterpiece in the mud. Toothless readjusted his grip on the sapling in his mouth before continuing to draw. Hiccup laughed at the utter absurdity of the situation.

Feeling satisfied with his work, Toothless tossed the branch away and nodded in approval. Hiccup said as he stood once more with the help of his crutch, "Looks good, bud, but we gotta keep moving." As he took a step, his foot accidentally stepped on one of the lines Toothless had drawn. Toothless growled and Hiccup immediately retracted his foot. He looked at the intricate lines scattered across the ground. "This is going to be impossible."

Toothless watched as Hiccup struggled not to step on any strokes of the masterpiece in the ground. He watched as Hiccup placed the walking stick in the center of non-drawn ground and limped over to it. He watched as Hiccup mis-stepped once and landed on the lines on the ground. He growled and the human immediately retracted his foot saying, "Sorry, bud. This isn't as easy as it looks."

One step, then the walking stick, another step, the walking stick, the process waned on until Hiccup was successfully out of the drawn maze. He stood mere inches away from the Night Fury. As he reached out his hand once more, Toothless growled and began to turn his head away. Hiccup immediately recoiled. He took a deep breath, dropped his gaze and held his hand out for the Night Fury to come to him.

Toothless' eyes widened. The human trusted him enough to do this? Why? Why would the injured human do this? Toothless waited to see if Hiccup would look up at him again, but when he didn't Toothless decided to press his snout softly against the palm of Hiccup's hand. Hiccup tensed slightly and glanced up at Toothless who shook his head, chortled and flew away back into the trees.

Hiccup glanced at his hand. _I touched a Night Fury! A Night Fury with retractable teeth!_ Despite the pain in his broken leg, Hiccup was on cloud nine.

[a/n] I can't tell you how fun (but admittedly difficult) it was to re-write Forbidden Friendship in reverse. Hope you liked it.


	8. Shutting Down the System

**Chapter Eight: Shutting Down the System**

"Eret made this place so it could be run on minimum staff for three weeks! Why isn't anything working? Where are my 'back-ups of back-ups' that Eret created?" Joanna was pacing behind Eret's computer where Arnold sat. Astrid, Snotlout and Heather sat on the metallic stairs so as to stay out of the way. Frustrated, Joanna took the cigarette out of Arnold's mouth. "Will you please stop the incessant smoking? We need to get the Isle back online!"

Arnold scowled and lit up another cigarette, much to Hammond's dismay. "I _told_ you, the 'white rabbit object' Eret inserted into the code is a virus. It wiped everything he ever did. Those back-ups of back-ups? Yeah they're gone. I can't get the Isle of Berk back online without Eret Nedry," Arnold explained.

"Then we need to shut the entire system down and reboot it."

"What? No! I'm not doing that."

"If we shut it down and reboot it, the system should start back up from the last restorable point, which was _before_ this 'white rabbit object', yes?" Joanna said.

"In theory yes. Joanna, I'm not shutting down the whole system."

"If we shut down the system and reboot it, will we get the phones back?" Astrid asked.

"In theory yes. But we've never shut down the whole system before. It might not come back on at all," Arnold said.

"So what do you suggest we do?" Joanna asked, irritated. Before Arnold could answer she shook her head, "No. No, absolutely not. That contingency is out of the question. We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on recreating these creatures, I won't have you send out the poison."

"What contingency?" Astrid asked.

"We created a poison," Heather explained, "One that's not harmful to humans but will make the dragons slip into a coma and die." Joanna had crossed her arms and shook her head as Heather continued, "It's not a particularly fast poison though because we needed to make sure that if any human was allergic to it or if it mutated and affected humans, we would need to be able to save them."

Joanna turned to Arnold once more, "People are dying. Will you please shut down the system?"

Arnold pinched the bridge of his nose. "And what's _your_ back-up plan if the system doesn't come back on at all, _Joanna Hammond?"_

She hadn't thought about that; she was so sure that the system would just restart as normal. With her mouth hanging open, she stood frozen in front of the group.

Snotlout slammed his fist on the railing, "I'm going to get the weapons out of my office. When I get back, Arnold is going to shut down the system. Stop being sissies!" With that, he stormed out of the Control Room.

"Quite headstrong, isn't he?" Astrid laughed.

* * *

Hiccup rubbed his eyes sleepily. He glared at his stomach as it growled once again. Since arriving to the park, he hadn't slept, and aside from the raw fish he was forced fed several hours ago, he hadn't really eaten. And to top it all off he had a broken leg and a Night Fury stalker. This trip was turning out to be just peachy.

He placed his crutch at the base of a tree and began to climb, a slow and painful process. Upon reaching a safe height he inspected his leg once more. He was going to have to rewash it soon, so it wouldn't get infected. But Hiccup decided that would be a task for after he slept. He closed his eyes and let sleep take him.

Several hours passed and Hiccup awoke wearily, but did not open his eyes right away. He cracked his neck twice and almost fell out of the tree when he finally did open his eyes. The Night Fury was hanging upside down by its tail a few branches up; he was asleep as well.

Hiccup glanced into his lap, disgusted to find another half fish. "Ugh, thanks, I think." The Night Fury's ears perked as Hiccup spoke and he peaked through one eye to look at the human. Hiccup had no intention of eating a second raw and regurgitated fish. He picked it up, preparing to toss it away, "Okay, okay. Pushy dragon, I'll eat the fish," Hiccup said as Toothless growled. He brought the fish up to his lips and took a small bite, "Mmm." Suddenly Astrid force-feeding him sushi wasn't looking so bad.

"Y'know," Hiccup said to Toothless, "Since you're so preoccupied with following me anyway, you should just fly me back to the Visitor's Center."

Toothless had perched himself on the same branch as Hiccup. The dragon narrowed his eyes and tilted his head, and Hiccup could have sworn he saw the Night Fury thinking over the request. It reminded him of the panther that his mother once brought home. His mother's words echoed in the back of his mind: _He's not a vicious beast, but an intelligent and gentle creature. _

Hiccup tried again to reach out his hand to touch Toothless and this time the dragon came willingly and almost automatically to press his snout against Hiccup's hand. Using Toothless' snout for support, Hiccup stood and with some difficulty mounted the dragon.

"Okay, bud, let's take this nice and slow-oh!"

Toothless took off almost immediately and flew higher and higher into the clouds. Hiccup clung to the dragon's neck. Toothless reached an apex and tilted backwards before barrel-rolling to right himself again. "Toothless!"

Toothless heard the strain in Hiccup's voice. Oh, humans aren't accustomed to flying and freefalling. He hovered closer to the tree tops and slowed his speed a little. Hiccup's tense grip around his neck softened, for which Toothless was eternally grateful.

* * *

Snotlout reentered the Control Room with several tranquilizers and a large bag slung over his shoulder. He placed the tranquilizers carefully on the ground but tossed the bag unceremoniously at the feet of Joanna Hammond. "Walkies, pistols, flashlights, flares. Oh and this," he reached into the bag and pulled out a replica of a Viking axe from the gift shop. "If you had _spared no expense_ in my department as well, we might not be in this situation."

"If I spared no expense, you would have had me buy you an army's worth of assault weapons. I didn't want your alarmist tendencies killing the dragons."

"Yeah well your _dragons_ are killing _people_," Snotlout countered.

Joanna sighed, "I know, which is why Mr. Arnold is going to shut down the system," she said through gritted teeth.

Arnold sighed and nodded. He opened the circuit breaker. Arnold turned off each switch, one by one. Astrid watched as the computers flickered off. Just before he flipped the last switch, Arnold signaled to the group to turn on their flashlights. "Hold onto your butts," he said as he flip the switch marked: _Main Power._

Watching his watch via the flashlight's dim lighting, Arnold waited until a minute passed. He flipped the Main Power switch back on. "Um," he said, as the lights didn't come back on.

"Hey look!" Heather pointed at one of the computers at Eret's station. The computer screen was blinking and on the bottom left corner of the screen it read: _System Ready._ "It worked! The system's back online."

"Um, hello, are you not seeing what I'm seeing?" Snotlout crossed his arms. "Everything is still off."

"Yeah, but the computer says 'system ready'. Turning off the power must have tripped the circuit breaker. Give me fifteen minutes and I can get everything back online," Arnold said. "Circuit breakers are in the maintenance shed on the other side of the complex.

"I'm going back out to search for them," Snotlout announced, grabbing two tranquilizer guns. The group looked at him. "What?" He demanded. "I'm not gonna sit on my ass in the dark and wait for Mr. Arnold to come back." He handed one to Astrid, "You coming or what?" Astrid snatched up the tranquilizer and followed Snotlout to the gas-powered cars.

"Give me the keys," Astrid held out her hand, palm facing upwards.

"What? Why?"

"You have more experience with the guns so it would make more sense if _I _drove so if any dragon tries to attack us, _you_ can shoot, right?"

"Oh, yeah, I knew that," Snotlout said as he handed over the keys and walked around the car to get into the passenger side. Astrid climbed in, adjusted her mirrors and started the engine. Snotlout directed her to take the fastest path towards the safari zone. He had reasoned that the safari zone was the most open area of the park so they would be able to see for miles and be able to spot any of their companions much faster than in the dense jungle of the basic tour route.

All around them the dragons were scooping up smaller animals, mainly fish and amphibians and carrying them away. Astrid slowed the car down, trying not to make any movements that would attract any of the dragons' attentions.

"They're hunting," Snotlout said.

"They're not eating any of it though. They're just…carrying it off. Look," Astrid pointed due north, "They're all flocking in that direction with the food."

Astrid put the car in park, but left the engine running—just in case they needed to make a speedy getaway. She climbed out of the Jeep and grabbed her tranquilizer from the back seat. Snotlout followed suit.

"Hey look over there," Snotlout whispered, pointing towards the water at the Night Fury and…

"HICCUP!"

* * *

Toothless landed in the soft grass in front of the small lake at the entrance of the safari zone. The Stormcutters and Hobblegrunts were on the bank across the way. Hiccup slowly dismounted and patted Toothless' snout, "Thanks, bud." He sat at the edge of the water and dipped his hands in, bringing it to his mouth. Toothless licked the water up as well, subconsciously wrapping his tail around Hiccup.

After having quenched his thirst, Hiccup began splashing water onto his injured leg. Toothless watched curiously before dipping his wings into the water and dumping a large amount all over Hiccup. "What? Ah! No, Toothless!" Hiccup complained and the Night Fury sulked. He was helping, he was sure of it.

Hiccup laughed, "Thank you for trying, bud. I'm sure I could probably use a shower anyway."

In the distance, Hiccup heard a familiar voice call his name. He sprang to his feet and before buckling again from the pain, Toothless scooped his snout under his over-eager, forgetful companion, keeping Hiccup from face-planting once again.

Unaware that Toothless was _helping_ Hiccup, Astrid and Snotlout panicked. Snotlout reloaded the tranquilizer and aimed it at the Night Fury. "Dr. Haddock, duck!"

"No, no! Don't shoot!"

"I've got a clear shot if you just duck!"

Toothless' eyes narrowed and he growled at the humans. He fired a warning shot into the air, despite Hiccup's pleas not to. Toothless glanced back and forth between the human with the gun and his injured human, who would surely die at the hands of the hunter human. He had seen the hunter human before, shooting down dragons. Seeing no other alternative, Toothless scooped Hiccup unceremoniously onto his back and took off away from the safari zone.

"The Night Fury took him," Astrid gasped. "It took Hiccup. A Night Fury. Took. Hiccup."

"Oh no it didn't," Snotlout said as he aimed the tranquilizer gun towards the sky.

"Hold your fire, you idiot!" Astrid smacked the gun towards the ground. "If the Night Fury goes down, so does Hiccup!"

"I knew that."

Meanwhile in the air…

"No, no, no, no! Toothless! Those were my friends! Take me back!" Toothless shook his head. That human was not friendly. He had a gun. Hiccup pulled on Toothless' shoulders, trying to steer him back towards Snotlout and Astrid. Toothless bucked and tossed Hiccup into the air. Luckily for Hiccup, Toothless had only pushed him slightly up and he came landing, less-than-gracefully, back onto the Night Fury's back with an "oof."

"Well you at least have to take me back to the Visitor Center," Hiccup reasoned with the dragon. Toothless emitted a low growl and shook his head once more. Hiccup rolled his eyes.

"Thanks for nothing, you useless reptile."


	9. Poor Fishlegs

**Chapter Nine: Poor Fishlegs**

To say that this trip was less-than-enjoyable for Fishlegs would be an understatement. Possibly _the _understatement of the century, which was a real bummer because the trip started out on such a positive note. He did get to meet two of his idols, Dr. Haddock and Dr. Hofferson after all.

However, after being attacked by the Red Death and climbing down a 50-foot wall to save one of Hammond's grandkids, he had the fantastic task of keeping the grandkids from getting themselves killed by provoking dragons. First it was the Typhoonmerang and its babies, then the Timberjack, and then the Fireworms. Somehow, with all three species the twins ended up practically unscathed despite their provoking antics, while Fishlegs bore the marks of their labors. And after finding a suitable tree for the trio to sleep safely in, poor Fishlegs was woken up by being _pushed_ out of the tree by Ruff and Tuff, both who accused the other of doing it. It was sufficient to say that Fishlegs was prepared to go home.

"I'm _tired_."

"Me too."

"Well maybe if you two slept like I told you to instead of playing pranks on me and pushing me out of a tree then you wouldn't be tired," Fishlegs snapped.

The twins raised their eyebrows at one another. "I wasn't tired then."

"Yeah me either. I'm tired _now_."

"Will you two be quiet?" Fishlegs whispered as they approached a large herd of Gronckles. Several of the Gronckles were fighting over food and others were circling one another, battling for the right to mate with a female. "Listen, Gronckles love rocks so we're going to toss some of these bigger rocks in a that way direction to get them to chase it. Otherwise we're going to have to go all the way around them."

"Throw rocks, got it!" Tuff said.

"Yeah! We're good at that!" Ruff added.

The twins picked up several rocks and threw them in the direction Fishlegs had wanted. Fishlegs stood in shock, not because the Gronckles predictably had chased after the rocks, but because the twins had actually _listened_ to him for once. He had expected them to hit one another first. Man, they really must be tired.

The female Gronckle watched as the males of the group hustled after the rocks that the twins threw. She turned to face the direction that the rocks came from and sniffed the air. As Fishlegs picked up a large rock and threw it towards the other Gronckles, he said quietly, "Here ya go, girl. Enjoy."

Once the Gronckles had moved, Fishlegs motioned for the twins to continue their journey back towards the Visitor's Center. Just before they passed out of the forested part of the park into the safari zone, Ruff pointed up into a pine tree at an iridescent egg. "Hey, what's _that?_"

"Oh! I know, pick me! Wait…no I don't know."

Fishlegs' eyes widened. "That's a Changewing egg. Oh no, this is not good. That means there's Changewings in the area. That means they've escaped their enclosure too." His panicked mind was moving at a mile-a-minute. He was trying to remember all of the facts his read about the Changewings from his University classes.

Ruff shook her head, "That's not an egg. That's a stone of good fortune! Just like the ones that Mom showed us!"

"Oh yeah!" Tuff said as he started to climb the tree. Fishlegs grabbed the belt loops on his jeans and pulled him back to the ground. "What? I want it! That's a lifetime's worth of good fortune!"

"No, it's a dragon egg. A highly dangerous color-changing, acid spitting, dragon egg."

"Wait, are these dragons invisible?" Ruff asked.

Fishlegs nodded, "They can change their scales to blend in completely with the environment. They're extremely territorial and will spit acid on anyone who stumbles on their territory or their eggs."

"So you're saying that if, like, a tree were spitting hot burning acid…" Tuff started.

"…That would be one of those dragons?" Ruff finished his sentence.

"Yes! Wow, I'm impressed that you got that on the first try."

"We're not stupid."

"Besides there's one on that tree behind you."

Fishlegs let out a high-pitched scream before pushing the twins out into the safari zone. Behind them the Changewings were firing acid. "Invisible dragons that shoot acid, just greeaatt…"

The trio ran towards the center of the safari zone where the small lake was. The twins shouting and Fishlegs' high-pitched screaming startled the dragons near the water and they flew off to perch safely in the trees.

Without hesitation the twins leapt into the water. Fishlegs threw his hands up in despair. "C'mon, Fishlegs! The Changewings won't get us in the water!"

"Where exactly did that logic come from?" Fishlegs asked, but before the twins could answer a Changewing fired acid behind him, nearly missing his left ear. Fishlegs squeaked and jumped into the water. The twins were already swimming across the lake to get to the other bank. As Fishlegs followed closely behind them he noticed that the Changewings had in fact stopped chasing them. "Huh, this must be the edge of their territory."

As Fishlegs stepped onto the other bank, Ruff said, "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Fishlegs silently prayed that it was the roar of an engine and someone had come to rescue him from these two terrible terrors. And no, he wasn't talking about the miniature green dragons.

"It's coming from over there!" Tuff pointed.

"Oh, it sounds completely terrifying!" Ruff said.

"Let's go find it!"

"Wait a minute. We don't go towards the weird scary sound!"

Ruff and Tuff rolled their eyes. "Uh, yeah we do." "Uh, we always do."

As the twins ran off, Fishlegs glanced at his body, which was currently covered in mud, bruises and shallow lacerations. Fishlegs looked up at the sky and moaned, "I'm not going to get out of this alive, am I? And it won't be a dragon that kills me, but them…"

* * *

Astrid and Snotlout returned to the Control Room to find it still in darkness save for the two flashlights. They flicked on their own flashlights and shined them around the room to get their bearings. Hammond was perched on top of one of the desks with a container of ice cream in her lap. Heather, on the other hand, was pacing nervously through the Control Room.

With her mouth full of ice cream, Hammond said, "I brought extra spoons. This ice cream is really quite spectacular. Spared no expense." Astrid merely hummed in agreement.

"What, Arnold isn't back yet? What's taking him so long?" Snotlout complained.

Between spoonfuls of ice cream, Hammond said, "This is just a delay. _All_ theme parks have delays. When Disneyland opened for the first time in 1956, nothing worked!"

"Yeah, but Joanna, when the _Pirates_ _of the Caribbean_ ride breaks down, the pirates don't EAT the tourists," Snotlout pointed out.

"You look whiter than a ghost, Astrid," Heather said.

"Yeah, that's because the only Night Fury you created flew off with her boyfriend," Snotlout laughed and Astrid glared at him through her blonde bangs. "What? It's the _truth_!" Astrid nonchalantly shot Snotlout with the tranquilizer gun in his foot. Since they were meant for the dragons and not for the humans, Snotlout was out cold in less than a second.

A single tear, half from rage, half from despair trickled down Astrid's cheek. Joanna put down her ice cream container, hopped off of the desk, and walked over to Astrid. Hammond placed her hand on Astrid's shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Dr. Hofferson." Astrid simply nodded.

Heather sighed, "That's it. Something's wrong. I'm going to the maintenance shed myself." She grabbed a pair of walkies and thrust one into Joanna's hand. "I'm on channel three." Out of habit, Heather reached for her badge to swipe against the keypad, but shook her head and laughed quietly to herself as she opened the door manually. In front of her stood… "Dr. Haddock?"

"Hiccup!" Astrid all but launched herself at Hiccup, accidentally knocking Heather down in the process. "How did you get away from the…Night Fury! Get down!" She pushed Hiccup forcibly back into the Control Room. Toothless saw the violent behavior and charged up a plasma blast. Hiccup immediately put his hand up, silently telling Toothless not to shoot. Toothless closed his mouth, licked his lips, and watched through the glass as Astrid pulled Hiccup further into the safety of the Control Room.

"No, no, ah, ow! Astrid, no Astrid! It's okay he's a friend. He brought me here. Ow, ow, Astrid!"

"A friend? Hiccup, he's a NIGHT FURY!"

"Yes, I am in fact, well aware of that, Astrid. Meet Toothless. Toothless, meet Astrid," Hiccup gestured between the pair. Through the glass of the window, Toothless hissed and bared his teeth. Astrid shot Hiccup a glare that read, _he's not very toothless, you idiot._

"And what happened to your leg?" Astrid demanded.

"Red Death rolled the second car on top of it. I made a splint, but it's pretty badly broken."

Astrid helped Hiccup towards a chair and pulled a second chair in front of him for him to prop his leg up. She slowly undid the bandages, apologizing quietly every time Hiccup winced or hissed in pain. Toothless paced outside of the Control Room, debating on whether he should blast the windows or not. It seemed like these humans were helping Hiccup. And the hunter human was on the ground asleep, or dead. Toothless hoped the latter of the two was true: he didn't like that hunter human.

Hiccup glanced over his shoulder and smiled at Toothless, who retracted his teeth and grinned back. Hiccup poked Astrid and jerked his thumb over his shoulder, "See? Toothless." Astrid smiled at his dorkiness.

Seeing that the situation in the Control Room was under control, Heather stepped back over the unconscious Snotlout and opened the door again. She carefully shimmied past the Night Fury and hurried down the hall in search of Mr. Arnold.

Hammond handed Astrid the first aid kit and together they resplinted Hiccup's leg. With proper tools, this splint made his maneuverability slightly better. At least it didn't hurt _as much_ to put some of his weight on it. Hiccup thanked Astrid, and she kissed him chastely on the cheek. "Of course, babe."

"So what happened to him?" Hiccup nodded his head in the direction of the still unconscious Snotlout.

"I thought you were dead," Astrid brushed her bangs out of her eyes.

"Ah, that explains it."

"You really are quite violent, Dr. Hofferson," Hammond said.

Astrid shrugged. "Must be the Viking blood."

[a/n] Sorry for the delay. Thanks for reading! Hope everyone is enjoying it!


	10. Changewings in the Kitchen

**Chapter Ten: Changewings in the Kitchen**

As Fishlegs and the twins continued their journey towards the Visitor's Center, Ruff complained, "My glutes hurt!"

"You don't have glutes, stupid!" Tuff responded.

"Sure I do, they're right….right….here!" Ruff pointed to her shins. Fishlegs pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. "Here?" she tried again, this time pointing at her triceps. Almost apologetically, Fishlegs shook his head once again. "They're right…here?" She pointed to her knee caps, hoping that the third time would be the 'charm'. Fishlegs crinkled his nose and shook his head once more.

"See? I told you, you didn't have glutes! Mutton-head!"

"I'll show you who's a mutton-head!" Ruff shouted and launched herself on her brother. She ripped his helmet off and used it to hit him in the head. Fishlegs quickly tried to pry the twins apart and much to his dismay…

"You _bit_ me! Y'know I'm starting to think the dragons would be more tame than you two."

Tuff laughed, "And less invisible and acid-spitting-y like them!"

"Like who…?" Fishlegs glanced behind him and saw the three Changewings flying behind them. He rolled his eyes and hurried the kids up the last stretch of hill to the Visitor's Center. They easily pushed open the intricately engraved wooden doors, and Fishlegs knew that since those doors did not lock or even latch shut that the Changewings would be able to enter the Visitor's Center just as easily. The emergency lights were on, but did not provide a lot of light.

The trio ran past the cafeteria and both of the twins looked longingly at the food on the tables. Fishlegs shook his head and ushered the kids into the kitchen. He shut the door behind them and they hurried to crouch on the opposite side of the countertops. He knew the Changewings were problem -solving and highly intelligent, but he doubted that they would be able to open a door that latched shut. He just wished that it had a lock.

They leaned their backs against the kitchen countertops and listened as the dragons rummaged around in the cafeteria. They heard the clatter of silverware and dishes onto the floor. It almost seemed as though the dragons were _searching_ for something. Then, they heard talons tap against the small round window of the kitchen door. The dragons were directly outside, clicking and hissing to one another.

For the first time the entire trip, the twins looked absolutely terrified. There was no excitement of "we might die" behind their blue eyes, not like there was when they were facing the Red Death. There was no giggling like they had done when they "accidentally" set the Timberjack on Fishlegs. The pre-teens glanced up as Fishlegs with wide eyes.

Tuff said, "Lexi is scared."

"I am not! Timmy is scared!" Ruff replied, smacking her brother upside the head.

"Will you two please be quiet?" Fishlegs whispered, angrily.

The twins pretended to zip each other's mouths shut and they crouched down behind the pantry alongside Fishlegs, who was trying—and failing—to calm his racing heart and unsteady breathing. The trio could hear the Changewings snapping at one another and the lull of their camouflaging scales changing and re-changing as they approached the door problem in front of them.

"Hush little Viking, don't you cry…" Ruff sang the lullaby their mother used to sing to them when they were scared of thunderstorms.

"Or the Berserker will poke you in the eye…" Tuff continued with her.

"Don't let the enemy see you afraid…"

"Or he's gonna gut you with a rusty blade…"

"If the dragon hears your moans…"

"He's gonna mash up all your bones…"

The twins tried to stifle their giggles at their lullaby, which instantly made them feel slightly better given the situation at hand. Fishlegs looked at them with his mouth agape. "That is a messed up song."

"Mom used to sing it to us 'cause _she_ was scared of thunderstorms," Tuff jabbed his thumb in his sister's direction and laughed. _Wait their _mom_ made up that song? _Fishlegs thought incredulously. Suddenly the twins' twisted sense of humor made perfect sense.

"I'm not scared of thunderstorms, you are. I was scared of you." Ruff pushed him over, accidentally knocking some spoons off of their rack.

Fishlegs hurriedly shushed the twins. "Don't make noise…oh dammit, never mind. Just shh…"

"What?" "Why?" Fishlegs pressed his forefinger to his lips as the Changewings tried several times to knock down the door to the kitchen by ramming into it. Luckily, the door was thick and the force of the dragons did not knock the door down. Still, the twins tensed up. Fishlegs began to crawl further into the kitchen, using the cabinets and pantries as cover. He motioned for the twins to follow, which they did.

As they crawled further into the kitchen the regular lights flickered on, which automatically turned the emergency lights off, illuminating the kitchen fully. Fishlegs made a mental note that that meant the power must have been turned back on completely.

As they crawled further away from the door, they heard growling, clicking and hissing at different intervals and pitches. "They're communicating," Fishlegs gasped. Using its snout the Changewing pushed the handle of the door down, successfully unlatching it. The Changewing pushed the door, once…twice…and with the third push of its snout the door swung open completely.

"It's inside."

"Thank you for that assessment, Ruff. I know," Fishlegs replied. "Stay low and follow me…and don't talk. Maybe we'll get out of this alive."

As Fishlegs was talking they could hear the sound of talons on the tiled floor. It wasn't just one Changewing in the kitchen. All three were here. The theories about them being pack hunters, well, they definitely weren't just theories anymore. The three dragons were working as a team to hunt down the humans.

"We're gonna make it out alive," Tuff whispered, confidently.

"I hope so, Tuff, I really do," Fishlegs said.

Tuff reached into his pocket and pulled out the iridescent egg. "Well, I know _I'll_ get out alive. I have the stone of good fortune."

Fishlegs made a motion to strangle Tuff. "You stole the dragon egg? After I told you not to? No wonder they're after us!" Fishlegs snatched the egg away from Tuff and made a motion to throw it, but Ruff stopped him.

"No. They dragons think we have their stone of good fortune…"

"Their _egg_. They think we have their egg, you thick-skulled idiots," Fishlegs corrected, a little too loud. The Changewings perked up at the sound of his voice and immediately camouflaged against the silver kitchen appliances.

"_Whatever!_" Ruff continued. "If you throw it and break it, they're gonna be more madder. And, then we won't even have the stone of good fortune to protect us." Unfortunately for Fishlegs, he couldn't actually argue with her logic on this one. He carefully put the egg into his pocket.

Tuff grabbed a butcher knife from the block. Fishlegs looked at him incredulously as if to say, _How are you going to stab an invisible dragon?_ But, much to the surprise (and partial relief, for he didn't want to have to explain to Joanna Hammond why her grandson was mutilated), Tuff pushed the knife across the kitchen tile and it slammed against the steel dishwasher. The clatter drew the attention of the Changewings.

Ruff, picking up on her brother's plan, stood up and grabbed an orange from the countertop. "Hey, dragons! Here's your egg!" She hurled it across the kitchen. The Changewings panicked, and as the three dragons raced to catch what they feared was their egg, the trio rushed out of the kitchen and slammed the door behind them.

They ran across the cafeteria. Tuff stopped briefly at a table to pick up some Jell-o, meanwhile his sister and Fishlegs urged him to hurry up. "What? I'm hungry. I haven't had anything to eat today…and you know what Mom always says…"

"Mom will kill you dead a second time if you get eaten by a dragon, numbnuts!" Ruff said. Tuff rolled his eyes and put the Jell-o down before running to catch up with the other two. Behind them the Changewings slowly opened the kitchen door once more. Upon seeing the fleeing humans, the lead Changewing hissed and camouflaged itself once more. They flew around Fishlegs, Ruff and Tuff and de-camouflaged, hissing and clicking at the humans.

"Get down. Their challenging us, otherwise we'd already be dead," Fishlegs advised and the twins swiftly obeyed. The lead Changewing approached Ruff and sniffed her helmet. Ruff squeezed her eyes shut as the Changewing pressed her snout on either side of Ruff's cheeks. "She thinks you stole the egg."

"Yeah well that was all me!" Tuff stood up to place himself between his sister and the dragon, only to be met with the other two Changewings in his face hissing at him to stay put. "Okay, pushy dragons, _she_ stole your egg."

Slowly Fishlegs pulled the iridescent egg from his pocket. Upon seeing the egg, the Changewings began to hiss louder. He handed the egg to Ruff, who slowly offered it up to the dragon, "Nice dragon. Here's your egg. Please don't eat me. Or burn me with acid."

The lead Changewing inspected the egg before delicately picking it up onto her snout. Although the egg muffled her clicks and hisses, the other two Changewings understood the objective. The humans must be made to pay for stealing the egg. On either side, they charged up a blast before…

…the lights flickered and the whole room shook. The Changewings glanced towards the sky, almost annoyed that it happened and then turned their attention back to the humans. When the ground shook a second time, the dragons camouflaged once more and flew away from the Visitor's Center. The ground shook a third time and Fishlegs, Ruff and Tuff could hear a loud roar. The lights flickered once more. "Control Room."

* * *

Meanwhile, back in the Control Room…

The lights in the Control Room emitted a low hum as they warmed back up. "Looks like Heather got us back in business, Joanna," Astrid commented. The emergency lights in the Control Room turned off. Snotlout slowly sat up, clutching his head. He and Astrid exchanged glares.

"She's the best of the best. I spared no expense," Joanna replied nonchalantly as she picked up the phone to dial for a helicopter. As she punched the numbers on the keypad, the Night Fury outside of the Control Room emitted a low growl and crouched into a predatory position.

"What is it, Toothless?" Hiccup asked. The lights flickered and the room shook. "Uh, is that a normal thing for the system reboot or…?"

"Grandma!" The twins rushed into the Control Room. Hammond dropped the phone receiver and hugged her grandchildren tightly. Tears streamed down her eyes at the sight of her grandkids and she completely forgot about Hiccup's question all together. Toothless was caught off guard by the little humans running past him and briefly cocked his head to the side before returning to his attack position. The ground shook once more.

"What happened to you?" Astrid asked, crossing her arms and raising her eyebrow at the disheveled Fishlegs.

"Their mother named them aptly. Trust me." Fishlegs replied.

The phone beeped incessantly from hanging off the base for too long. Hammond reached over and replaced it on the base. Almost instantaneously, the phone rang. Hammond picked it up, "Hello? Heather? … I can't hear you real well… Heather? …Yes I see that the phones are working… Hello? …Speak up, I can barely hear you. … What do you mean you can't talk louder? …Heather? Heather!"

Outside of the Control Room, they could hear a loud roar. Hammond thought to herself, _Could this get any worse? _Fishlegs' eyes widened with worry. "That sounds like the roar of a Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus."

"Oh so you're the expert on dragon calls?" Snotlout mocked.

Fishlegs crossed his arms. "I'll have you know that part of our coursework at Berkeley is to create the resonating chambers of the dragons using a 3-D printer. Once the chambers are printed we can recreate the sounds that the dragons made during the time of the Vikings."

Snotlout rolled his eyes, "That sounds like a load of bull—"

"Snotlout! There are children in the room!" Hammond chided.

"What did Heather want?"

"What? Oh! She's trapped in the maintenance shed by some dragons. She needs us to rescue her," Hammond said.

"Who's gonna rescue us, then?" Fishlegs squeaked as the room shook and the Red Death roared again.

"Smell ya later!" Ruff called over her shoulder as she hurried out of the room. As she shimmied past Toothless she whispered, "Nice dragon. I didn't steal any of your eggs. Please don't incinerate me."

Tuff followed quickly behind his sister. As Astrid helped Hiccup towards the door, she sniffed the air. "Does it smell like something is burning to…ahh!" She screamed, startled by the water spouting from the ceiling.

"Can we move _any_ slower?" Snotlout demanded. "I'd like to get out of the building _before_ the dragon burns the whole thing to the ground." Astrid shot him a glare and nodded her head in Hiccup's direction, silently trying to remind Snotlout that Hiccup was injured. "_What_? I don't have time for you two love birds to leisurely walk through the Visitor's Center. The Red Death is burning the place to the ground!"

"Yeah we kinda got that," Hiccup replied dryly as he continued to hobble with Astrid's help towards the door. With his leg freshly and properly splinted he could put more pressure on it; however, the adrenaline had finally worn off and he was really starting to feel the excruciating pain of the multiple breaks in his bones. Toothless nudged Hiccup as he passed, and Hiccup smiled, "Thanks, bud. I know he's being a pain." Toothless cooed before following behind the humans.

* * *

[a/n] I am so sorry for the delay. Now that school's out for the summer I hope to be posting new chapters more frequently. And I know, this was a mix of the raptor scene from the first JP and the third, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway! Thanks for reading!


	11. Dragon Riders Coming Through

**Chapter Eleven: Dragon Riders Coming Through **

"What is everyone looking…whoa!" Snotlout fell silent as he saw the Red Death's head poking through the hole in the roof of the Visitor's Center…the hole that she had just burnt in it. Debris fell from the ceiling onto the tiled floor below.

"Nobody move a muscle," Hiccup warned and much to his dismay nobody except Astrid listened. The all made a frantic dash for the entranceway doors on the other side of the hall. The movement instantly caught the Red Death's attention. The Red Death roared and then fired at the running humans, blocking their path to the doorway. "Why does nobody ever listen to me?"

Toothless shot a warning shot at the Red Death and then scooped Hiccup up onto his back. Hiccup held out his hand for Astrid to help her onto the Night Fury. Toothless fired a second shot at the Red Death to keep its attention on them rather than the defenseless humans on the ground. As they hovered in the air and dodged the shots of the Red Death, Snotlout smashed the glass encasing on the fire extinguisher and calmed the flames enough for them to safely exit the Visitor's Center.

"Hiccup they're out," Astrid pointed with her free arm while holding tightly onto Hiccup's waist with the other arm.

Hiccup nodded and patted Toothless, "All right, bud. Get us outta here." Toothless nodded. He shot a plasma blast directly into the Red Death's eyes, causing the colossal dragon to groan, shake its head and lose focus just long enough for the Night Fury to slip past.

Once outside, the humans pressed themselves against the wall to stay out of sight of the Red Death. Toothless mimicked the behavior by sitting up on his haunches. He tilted his head to the side as he listened to the humans debate over their next move.

Above them a small pack of Terrible Terrors flew towards the Red Death. She roared and sucked in air, drawing several of the small green dragons into her mouth. "It's a cannibal," Hiccup and Astrid gasped simultaneously. No amount of digging up bones would have ever told them that.

As the Red Death was preoccupied with the Terrors, the once-sick Nadder trotted over to them and nudged Astrid. She pet the Nadder's snout. "How soon until the helicopters get here?"

Hammond bit her lip. "I, uh, didn't get a chance to call for the choppers. Lex and Tim came in and then Heather called…"

"Maybe if you had 'spared no expense' and made a panic button to alert the mainland, this wouldn't have been an issue in the first place," Snotlout grumbled.

"The dragons weren't meant to attack anyone," Hammond countered. "The Red Death went rouge and is controlling them to do that. She was only supposed to keep them on the island."

Fishlegs said excitedly, "Toothless could fly everyone to safety, back to the mainland. He's the fastest dragon, ever!"

"We won't all fit on Toothless though. I'd have to make multiple trips," Hiccup countered. "And besides, we have to save Heather."

"Maybe we won't have to…" Astrid started.

"How do you figure? I mean I could probably take the twins and maybe you at the same time, but then I'd have to go back to…why must you do that?" Hiccup asked, slightly embarrassed that even after all these years a simple kiss could make him lose his train of thought.

The Nadder nudged Astrid once more and Astrid raised her eyebrows at her boyfriend, while jabbing her thumb in the direction of the blue and yellow dragon next to her. "What if we all rode dragons?" She patted the Nadder's snout once more before climbing onto its back. The dragon squawked and stutter-stepped twice before relaxing to the new feeling of having a human on her back.

Hammond nodded. "I am going to try to get into the emergency shelter in the basement of the Visitor's Center. There are extra phones in there. I'll call for the chopper, and you go rescue Heather." Hammond pointed. "The shed is due north. You can't miss it. Snotlout made me built it up heavier and stronger because he's an alarmist."

"Chyah, and if you had listened to me more often…" Snotlout crossed his arms.

"Now is not the time for 'I toldja so's'," Astrid interjected. The Red Death set fire to more of the Visitor Center in its angry search for the humans. Meanwhile the pesky Terrible Terrors perched on top of the Red Death's head. "We need to get everyone on dragons so we can take out the Red Death and save Heather."

"I LOVE this plan!" Tuff shouted.

"No!" Hammond said, trying to stop the twins. She already thought she lost them once and she wasn't willing to risk that a second time.

Ruff put her hand on Hammonds' hand. "Don't worry, Grandma. You gave us Viking helmets. We're Vikings. It's an occupational hazard."

Hammond forced a small smile. "You two really are rough around the edges and tough as steel. Don't get yourselves killed, okay? Your mother will never forgive me otherwise."

But Hammond's cautious words fell on deaf ears. "I want that one!" Ruff pointed to the Zippleback at the base of the hill. "C'mon, Tuff. There's one head for each of us! It's perfect." The twins bashed their helmets together and ran down the hill towards the Hideous Zippleback.

"Uh, guys, can't we get you on a Hobblegrunt or another more docile…" Hiccup began, but Fishlegs shushed him.

"Trust me," Fishlegs said, pointing to his several bite marks that the twins had left on him. "They'll be fine. And you already have one broken leg."

When Ruff and Tuff were only a few feet away from the Zippleback, they stopped running and dove to the ground, army crawling closer. Hiccup was sure they were going to get themselves killed. In a split second the twins shot up from their crouched positions in the grass and shouted "Hey Barf-face!" "Hey Belch-er-roo!" The Zippleback raised its twin heads up and hissed down at Ruff and Tuff. Having gotten the dragon's attention the twins ran in opposite directions around it, causing the Zippleback to tangle the two heads together. The heads fell to the ground and the twins reached out their hands, one to each head, just like they had seen Hiccup and the others do to the other dragons.

The Zippleback glanced between each of its heads and the twin humans standing in front of it. Slowly, it unraveled its heads and picked up the twins in its jaws. The right head picked up Ruff and placed her onto the left's neck. The left head did the same as the right with Tuff.

"I can't believe that worked," Hiccup said.

"Hello, fellow dragon riders!"

"Meet Barf…"

"And Belch!" The twins introduced their new dragon, triumphantly.

"Oh gods," Hiccup swore under his breath. "Okay so let's get you two on dragons."

"I personally would like to have a Hobblegrunt. Or maybe a Stormcutter. Or, oh, I know, a Gronckle!" Fishlegs said excitedly. Snotlout punched Fishlegs in the upper arm. "Ow, what was that for?" Fishlegs whined, rubbing the sore spot.

Snotlout shrugged. "Eh, I wanted to see if you truly lost your man-card. A Gronckle? Really? You couldn't want something more battle-worthy like a Nightmare or something?"

Before Fishlegs could retort, Hiccup interjected, "Guys, guys. Let's focus. There should be plenty of dragons just past those trees. The lake and the safari zone are right past there. We need everyone on dragons for this plan to work."

The twins high-fived and exclaimed, "Yeah! Dragon riders coming through!" as they took off towards the lake.

* * *

"Was there anything in your dragon book from Gobber that might help us with a real-live dragon?" Astrid called from her position on the Nadder.

"Now you think it's not just speculation? Three days ago…"

"Three days ago I wasn't riding a freakin' Deadly Nadder, Hiccup! Three days ago there wasn't a giant Red Death trying to set my ass on fire!"

"Okay, okay! Calm down," Hiccup thought back to the book. "Well, all dragons apparently had shot limits before they had to 'refuel' essentially. The Gronckles was six shots."

"Monstrous Nightmares have 10 shot limit, Zippleback's and Deadly Nadders have a 6 shot limit. But the Nadder's fire is rumored to be magnesium," Fishlegs added as he pulled on the Gronckles' ears to steady himself in the air. The group looked at him in shock. "What? I _told_ you I used to collect the dragon trading cards. Each card had all sorts of stats on it."

"Anything on the Red Death?" Astrid asked, hopefully as the Nadder beat its wings several times to stay afloat in the air. They could see the Red Death in the distance (but really, the sheer size of the dragon made it impossible to miss), but they knew that due to its poor vision, they were all-but-invisible to the dragon.

"No. That card and the Night Fury are extremely rare. I never had one of either," Fishlegs said sadly. "But," he added. "I do know that dragons are supposed to be sensitive to sound. If we bang on things they'll become disoriented."

"Okay," Hiccup said. "Ruff, Tuff, your job is to find out the Red Death's shot limit. Make it mad."

The twins reared the Zippleback's heads close so that they could headbutt one another with their Viking helmets. "That's our specialty."

"So I've noticed," Hiccup muttered under his breath before returning his attention to the rest of the group. "Snotlout, Fishlegs, make as much noise as possible to keep it disoriented. Astrid, you and I are going to find Heather."

"And what's your brilliant plan for once you find Heather?" Snotlout demanded. "It's not like the Red Death is just going to say 'Oh my bad, you guys have a helicopter here now to take you to the main land? I see. Have a safe passage.' Hello! It's a bloodthirsty dragon."

"I'm working on it," Hiccup said. "For now, keep it distracted so Hammond can actually get down to the emergency bunker to _call_ for the helicopter." Snotlout rolled his eyes and cocked the tranquilizer gun. He nudged the Monstrous Nightmare's neck to urge the dragon to follow the rest of the group. Meanwhile, Hiccup and Astrid flew off towards the maintenance shed.


	12. Speed Stingers

**Chapter Twelve: Speed Stingers**

As Hiccup and Astrid approached the maintenance shed on their dragons they could see a swarm of small biped green dragons surrounding the shed. With their rapid movements, they were near impossible to see at full speed, but as they would pause briefly to communicate with one another, Hiccup and Astrid could get a better look at the tiny raptor-like dragons. The dashed around the shed and rammed into the door and the tiny barred windows, trying to break into the maintenance shed.

One of the dragons had a red and white crest on top of its head. The red and white crested dragon made no attacks on the shed, instead it growled and clicked at the other dragons as they continued to rush around the shed. "Look, Astrid! The Lead Stinger. And they're following its directions to try to get into the shed. It's not a random spur of attacks, but a coordinated system to try to break down the door. You were right about their level of intelligence!" Hiccup prattled on and excitedly waved his hands to emphasize his point. "I wonder if their stingers on their tails really hold poison or if they're just sharp…"

"Babe, really? Now?"

Hiccup held up his hands defensively. "You're right, you're right. We have to save Heather."

"How are we going to get into the shed with the Speed…?" Before Astrid could finish her question, Toothless fired a plasma blast, successfully spooking the tiny green dragons. A moment later, however, they had regrouped to the call of the Lead Stinger and reinitiated their attacks on the door.

"I like your plan, bud," Hiccup patted the dragon's head. "Okay, Astrid, have your Nadder fire again to spook them. We'll keep firing until we scare them far enough away to safely land and get into the shed."

Astrid nodded. She patted her own dragon, "Okay, Stormfly, fire!" The Nadder complied and fired down at the Speed Stingers.

"Storm…fly…?" Hiccup raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I mean we found her just before the storm hit and she's the first dragon I've flown…so…oh! Don't give me that look!" Astrid said, playfully. Hiccup raised his hands in a mock surrender. Toothless fired several more shots. As Stormfly fired again, Astrid noted, "I think Fishlegs was right about the Nadder's type of fire."

"Yeah, once we get Heather out and are safely back on our dig site we should consider hiring him as an intern for the next season," Hiccup said. Toothless and Stormgly fired one final shot each, and the Lead Speed Stinger called to its pack to retreat farther into the jungle. Toothless and Stormfly landed and Astrid dismounted quickly, then rushed over to the Night Fury to help Hiccup dismount as well. They signaled their dragons back into the sky and hurried into the shed before the Stingers came back.

After securing the door shut behind them, Hiccup and Astrid descended the metal staircase. Even with the regular power back on, the maintenance shed was poorly lit. "You think Hammond could 've 'spared some expenses' here, huh?" Astrid nudged Hiccup in the chest with her elbow.

At the base of the staircase was a narrow hallway. Hiccup and Astrid walked cautiously down the dimly lit hallway to… "It's a dead end," Hiccup noted. "We really should have asked Hammond for a schematic or something of this shed since it's not so straight forward."

Astrid rolled her eyes, but halfway through the motion she stopped, noticing the large grey wiring above them. "Hiccup, I bet the wires lead to the circuit breaker. We can follow them and to find Heather." Hiccup nodded, and the pair began to follow the wires, backtracking towards the metal staircase. They made a right turn down a second hallway, which thankfully was better lit.

At the end of the second hallway Astrid and Hiccup could see Heather. She was sitting, propped against the wall, cradling her left leg. Hanging off the wall was a corded phone—the one she had used to call Hammond not long ago. Separating them and her was a wired gate door, which looked as though it had been attacked several times by something. Behind her were red buttons labelled with each of the parks' fences. "Heather, are you okay?"

"Yeah, one of the Speed Stingers got me in the leg though. Luckily, she's just a juvenile so her sting can't fully paralyze anyone yet. I can't walk though."

"Where's the Speed Stinger now?"

Heather shrugged. "I dunno. It stung me right as I tried to leave so I slammed the gate shut. It attacked the gate for a little bit before giving up and running away. I think it got lost from its pack."

"That's why the Speed Stingers were attacking the shed so adamantly. They don't care that Heather is in here. They want the baby back," Hiccup concluded. "They are trying to protect the baby. I think the debate over the parental instincts of the dragons is purely academic now."

Astrid raised an eyebrow. "Do you think the Lead Stinger is female then?" Hiccup shrugged.

"Look out!" Heather shouted and pointed.

The juvenile Speed Stinger launched itself towards Hiccup and Astrid. Astrid reacted quickly by pushing Hiccup onto the ground and then round-house kicking the tiny dragon, hurling it against the nearby wall. "And you thought those self-defense classes were unnecessary," she joked as she helped Hiccup to his feet.

They walked up to the wired gate door. As Hiccup examined the damage on the wire, Heather explained, "Their attitude is about as bad as the Changewings', but not they're not as deadly. Their stings just temporarily paralyze. And they're not clever like the Changewings. They're strength is in their numbers of the pack not in their intelligence." Hiccup pulled on the handle several times to open the door, but to no avail. He turned to Astrid, who smirked and kicked the gate in.

Astrid mock bowed and held out her hand, "After you, Dr. Haddock."

"Why thank you, milady," Hiccup winked.

Hiccup and Astrid helped Heather to her feet. She placed her arms around their shoulders and used them as a pair of human crutches. Her left side was almost completely unresponsive, which slowed down the process of getting back out of the maintenance shed. The stairs proved particularly difficult for the group, as they practically had to drag Heather up them and Hiccup couldn't put the proper amount of weight on his one leg to actually help her up the stairs.

After several painstaking minutes, the group was at the top of the stairs. Hiccup cracked the door open and immediately slammed it shut. On the opposite side, they could hear the Speed Stingers ramming against the heavy metal door again.

Hiccup cracked the door open a second time, shouted for his Night Fury friend and then slammed the door shut again. He could hear the familiar sound of Toothless charging up his plasma blast. The group heard the Nadder squawk and fire as well. Then a faint thud of the two dragons landing outside of the shed's door. Hiccup opened the door for a third time and smiled at Toothless. Toothless' eyes dialated, happy to see his human was successful and uninjured…er well, not any more injured than he already was at least.

"I'm gonna leave the door open, so the Speed Stingers can rescue their baby," Astrid said as she propped the heavy door open. Hiccup smiled and nodded.

Astrid and Hiccup helped Heather onto Toothless and then the dragontologists mounted their own dragons. "All right, let's get back to the Visitor's Center and help the others with that Red Death."

[a/n] Battle of the Red Death next chapter! Thanks again for reading! And to those of you wishing for a sequel, I did start outlining it last night.


	13. Battle of the Red Death

**Chapter Thirteen: Battle of the Red Death**

While Hiccup and Astrid had flown off to rescue Heather in the maintenance shed, Fishlegs, Snotlout and the twins focused their efforts on distracting the Red Death so that Hammond could sneak into the emergency bunker in the basement of the half-destroyed Visitor's Center.

"Heavily armored head and tail made for bashing and crushing. We need to stay clear of both. Small eyes, large nostrils, relies heavily on hearing and smell. And remember Hiccup says its vision is based on movement," Fishlegs prattled on about the Red Death.

"Blah, blah, blah. Are you done yet?" Snotlout asked, angrily before aiming his tranquilizer gun and shooting the colossal dragon in the neck. A moment passed and the dragon didn't even slow. All the while, the twins were flying in circles above the Red Death shouting out all manners of creative insults to it. "I don't get it. The tranquilizer should put the dragon out."

"A regular dragon maybe, but her?" Fishlegs scoffed. "I bet she doesn't even know you shot her."

But Snotlout wasn't listening to Fishlegs. He opened the tranquilizer gun and reloaded it with another dart. He shot the giant dragon a second time. Again, no reaction. "Hey, Fishface, wanna shut up for a minute and let me shoot you? See if the darts are working?" Snotlout half-joked.

Fishlegs pulled the Gronckle farther away from Snotlout, his Monstrous Nightmare and the gun. "Um, no. Let's just do what Hiccup had planned. Make lots of noise. I mean the twins are being pretty successful at keeping her mad. And we need to give Hammond enough time to actually get a hold of the mainland."

Snotlout rolled his eyes, but knew that Fishlegs was right. He steered the Monstrous Nightmare towards the trees. Snotlout hooked the strap of his gun around his shoulders, holstering it onto his back. He then grabbed several branches and tossed two towards Fishlegs. They flew next to the Red Death.

The pair banged their branches against one another. The drumming sound of the branches, combined with the twins shouting began to bother the Red Death. She shook her head and blinked slowly, trying to reorient herself.

Unfortunately the noise not only disoriented the Red Death but also the Gronckle and the Monstrous Nightmare that Fishlegs and Snotlout were riding. The Monstrous Nightmare shook violently, confused by the clashing sounds, and bucked Snotlout into the air…and onto the head of the Red Death. The two branches slid easily off of the Red Death's head. Snotlout grasped frantically onto one of the small horn-like protrusions on the dragon's head. He pulled himself up to standing.

Snotlout pulled the tranquilizer gun from his back and fired the last dart he had into the giant dragon, still with no effect. "God dammit," he swore.

Fishlegs' Gronckle was shaking in frustration from the combined noises of the branches and the twins shouting. The brown dragon began to lose altitude, "Ah, Snotlout! I'm losing power on the Gronckle. Do something! Fast!"

Using the butt of his tranquilizer gun to poke the dragon in each of its eyes repeatedly, Snotlout shouted, "What's wrong, buddy? You got something in your eye?"

Hammond cautiously climbed the stairs out of the back of the Visitor Center, having successfully contacting the mainland. Hammond glanced up at the sky and saw the dragon riders circling the Red Death and Snotlout standing on the head of the dragon, clobbering it in the eyes with the gun. _This is a disaster_, Hammond thought. _I hope the mainland actually sends a helicopter as quickly as they say they will._

Hiccup and Astrid flew in on their dragons. Astrid hovered on her Nadder as Hiccup guided Toothless to the ground to let Heather off. Some of the feeling had returned to Heather's leg, and she hobbled over to Joanna Hammond.

"Did you call the mainland?"

Hammond nodded. "Helicopter should be here within the hour." Hiccup rolled his eyes before signaling to Toothless to regroup with the others to take out the Red Death. Hammond grabbed Hiccup's hand, "Dr. Haddock, I'm…I'm sorry…for…everything," she motioned towards his leg and then towards the park.

"Yeah me too. We'll set it right."

"Dr. Haddock, you don't have to go up there."

"Eh, I'm a Viking. Like the twins said, it's kind of an occupational hazard," Hiccup replied nonchalantly. He turned his attention to Toothless. "All right, bud, let's show 'em what you got!"

Astrid shouted to Ruff and Tuff to get Snotlout off of the Red Death's head. The twins both told Astrid that they were 'on it' before briefly becoming involved in a shouting match about who was on it first. Astrid whistled loudly, which caught the attention of both the twins and the Red Death. "You idiots are on ONE dragon. Get Snotlout outta there, and get back to the Visitor's Center with your grandmother! NOW!"

The twins oohed in unison, before turning their Zippleback towards the Red Death. Snotlout took a few steps back to give himself enough of a running start to leap onto the Zippleback as the twins passed overhead. "I can't believe that worked!" He said to no one in particular.

The Red Death's patience with the smaller dragons was completely gone. She inhaled sharply, pulling Astrid and her Nadder towards her open mouth. The Nadder beat its wings harder, trying to pull away from the powerful winds that were sucking it towards the Red Death. Astrid encouraged, "C'mon, Stormfly. Get us outta here. You can do it!" But as she was saying that, the Red Death inhaled more air and drew them closer.

Behind the Red Death, Toothless charged up his plasma blast and shot at the Red Death's head. Surprised by the aerial attack, the Red Death closed its mouth and turned its head sharply to see the Night Fury. In turning its head, she knocked Astrid off her Nadder, hurling her towards the ground. "Hiccup!"

"C'mon, bud!" The Night Fury closed his wings and dove down after Astrid. Astrid crossed her arms in front of her face, trying to prepare herself for the impact. A split second from hitting the ground and he caught her in his paws by her feet. Toothless opened his wings and ascended back towards a more comfortable flying height. "Did you get her?" Toothless looked down at the human in his claws and showed a gummy smile. Astrid returned the smile, gratefully.

Toothless expertly tossed Astrid up to flip her around so that he could hold onto her shoulders rather than her leg. He flew towards the crumbling Visitor's Center and dropped the human off next to the others. Hiccup said to his dragon, "Let's use its size against it, shall we, bud?" Toothless roared in agreement and fired several shots at the Red Death. The last of which, knocked the Red Death completely off balance, "You think that did it?"

The Red Death spread its wings and began to chase Toothless and Hiccup in the air. Toothless expertly weaved to avoid the shots from the bigger dragon. Storm clouds were rolling in once again. Hiccup looked at the darkening sky and then at the dark hide of the Night Fury. "Okay, Toothless, time to disappear." They climbed higher, into the clouds. Using the protection of the clouds, Toothless hovered behind the Red Death, careful to stay out of sight as it searched the sky.

Back on the ground the humans watched the clouds with baited breath. They couldn't see either of the dragons through the thick cloud cover; they could only see the blue of Toothless' plasma blasts on the Red Death, which illuminated the silhouette of the dragons for a split second. Enraged by the blast from the tiny dragon, the Red Death fired wildly into the air.

"Okay, we need a plan B, bud," Hiccup said as Toothless fired once again on the colossal dragon. "Do you trust me, Toothless?" Toothless looked up at his human and cooed softly. "All right, let's go!" The pair flew close to the Red Death's head, allowing it to get a good look at them. "Is that the best you can do, dragon?" Hiccup shouted. Toothless took the cue from his human and roared at the Red Death as well, in hopes of successfully enraging it. Hiccup then guided Toothless to turn towards the ground and dive.

The Red Death growled and followed the agile dragon and his rider towards the ground as well. Toothless could feel the Red Death gaining on them, and the Night Fury's wings beat more frantically to try to keep them ahead. "Just a lil' bit further, buddy. Trust me," Hiccup encouraged. "Hold, Toothless," Hiccup said as he listened for the Red Death to charge up another shot. "NOW!"

Hiccup steered Toothless around in a quick barrel turn towards the other dragon. Toothless fired one final shot into the Red Death's mouth. The Red Death screeched as the plasma blast ignited its insides.

Toothless closed his wings tightly against his body and spun around before opening them like a parachute. They floated past the Red Death's head, who was still on a collision course with the ground. Having her insides ignited by Toothless' plasma blast meant she couldn't open her wings fully. The fire started to burn holes in them, which made the parachute technique useless for her. She smashed into the ground; the impact killed her instantly.

Toothless fluttered his wings twice to stay afloat in the air. His instincts shot him to attention, but at a split second too late. The club-like tail of the Red Death knocked into them, which threw Hiccup from his back. The impact knocked him out cold. Toothless screeched, hoping to rouse the human as he fell. He needed the human to reach out for him, how else was he going to save him from hitting the ground and dying like the Red Death?

As Hiccup fell, Toothless plummeted after him. He screeched again, desperate to reach the human before he struck the ground. The closest thing between them was Hiccup's injured leg. Toothless grabbed onto the leg with his teeth and used it to pull Hiccup in close. Toothless wrapped his paws around the human, securing him against his chest. He then closed his wings around both of them to add to the protection. The pair hit the ground with a loud thud.

Astrid and the others watched the scene unfold, completely helplessly. Astrid ran up to Toothless, tears in her eyes. "Odin, please no." Toothless stirred and looked up at Astrid. He tilted his head to the side as she dropped to her knees, sobbing into her hands. Slowly, he unwrapped his wings to reveal an unconscious Hiccup. His already broken leg was bleeding profusely once more. It was crooked at an awkward angle just below the kneecap. Toothless cooed, which caused Astrid to look up. "You, you saved him!" She grabbed his wrist and let out a sigh of relief when she could feel a pulse. Tentatively she touched the Night Fury's snout, "Thank you, thank you for bringing him back alive."

The twins peered over Astrid's shoulder. "Whoa, look at all of that blood!"

"Do you think they'll have to chop it off?"

"He could get a rifle for a leg instead!"

"OW!" The twins complained in unison as Hammond pinched their earlobes.

"Be a little bit more sensitive," she scolded her grandkids.

Fishlegs knelt next to Astrid, "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Joanna's grandkids are probably right," Astrid glared at him and he held up his hands defensively. "Not about the rifle-leg part, but the amputation probably."

Astrid glanced between the Night Fury and Hiccup, trying to figure out the best way to get Hiccup's partially disfigured body back to the Visitor's Center without further damaging anything on his leg. She shook his shoulders gently, and Hiccup woke groggily. He winced in pain but didn't look down at his leg. He knew it was broken already, so he didn't feel the need to look at it. He didn't think that the injury could be any worse than it already was.

"I definitely think I'm gonna need a doctor for my leg," he smiled sarcastically and Astrid didn't have the heart to tell him what the leg actually looked like. Toothless nudged his human towards his mate so that Toothless could stand up. He jerked his head, trying to signal to Astrid that he wanted to carry Hiccup back to…well wherever the humans deemed was the safest spot to move to.

Astrid nodded, "Snotlout, come help me get Hiccup on this Night Fury's back, please."

* * *

The humans walked around the Visitor's Center, or what was left of it anyway, towards the garage where the gas powered Jeeps were kept. They would need to take them to the landing pad where the helicopters would be picking them up. Toothless padded behind them with Hiccup clinging to his neck.

"How did you know shooting inside the dragon's mouth would set in on fire like that? I never in a million years woulda thought of that!" Fishlegs gushed as they approached the gas powered Jeeps.

"Eh," Hiccup shrugged. "Lucky guess, honestly. Turns out that information in the dragon book my Uncle Gobber gave me is more accurate than I thought initially. Dragons aren't so fireproof on the inside."

As Astrid hopped into the gas-powered jeep, she said, "Joanna, after careful consideration I've decided not to endorse your park."

Disheartened, but knowing that Astrid was right, Dr. Joanna Hammond took one last look at the crumbling visitor's center and sighed, "So have I."

Toothless extended his wing towards the side of the Jeep allowing Hiccup to use it as a slide to ease him into the back of the car. Toothless cooed and Hiccup touched his snout lovingly. "Thanks, bud, but you gotta stay here. I don't think the world is ready to have dragons in it again." Toothless' ears drooped and his cooed, trying to convince Hiccup to let him come as well. Hiccup forced a small smile, "Stay hidden, bud."

As they rode in the helicopter, slightly more squished than the last time, Hiccup watching fore longingly out the window. Astrid placed her hand on his non-broken leg, which caught his attention. He turned to her and she kissed his cheek. "It's better that he stays in the wild. We couldn't keep a 25 foot dragon on the dig site…or in our camper." Hiccup nodded, knowing she was right. He still felt bad about leaving Toothless behind.

Exhausted from the…dragon excursion, the twins used one another for support as they slept. Fishlegs commented, "You know they're almost sweet when they're like this…and not, y'know, trying to set wild Timberjacks on me."

"It's the only time they're not trying to hit one another over the head," Hammond commented. "Why do you think I got them the Viking helmets?" Hammond paused. "Exact replicas and really durable too. I made sure of that…spared no expense."

"Ma'am," the pilot addressed Hammond over the intercom. "There's a person in the water. My four o'clock."

Hammond looked out the window and scowled as she saw Eret Nedry floating unconscious on the two suitcases full of money. "Leave him."

"Yes, ma'am."

"There's justice in the world after all."

[a/n] One more chapter to go! Hope you're still enjoying it!


	14. The Dragon Training Academy

**Chapter Fourteen: Dragon Training Academy**

Hiccup and Astrid were awoken by a loud thump on the rooftop of their camper. Astrid blew her bangs out of her eyes, frustrated at the interns playing pranks once again. If they didn't always need money for research and dig permits, she would have told Hiccup that interns weren't worth the trouble. And she hated interviewing them. Because, to be honest, even the best of the crop were still immature 20-somethings. Astrid rolled over onto her side and buried her face in Hiccup's freckled chest.

A second thump. Hiccup furrowed his brow as he stared intently at the ceiling. He heard a familiar cooing sound and his eyes widened. Carefully he dislodged himself from Astrid's embrace. She stirred slightly and muttered through sleep, "Tell the interns I'm going to feed them their balls tomorrow for waking me up."

"You got it, milady," Hiccup replied as he grabbed his new walking cane. Joanna had sent it Priority Mail (though, "priority" really meant she had sent one of her many employees in a helicopter with the package). It was black with Norse markings engraved into it. Joanna had done her research, Hiccup had discovered, as the markings were inspirational quotes and dragon names.

Hiccup opened up the camper door, hobbled out, and glanced up at the rooftop. He was greeted by the Night Fury from the island. Hiccup smiled and the Night Fury retracted his teeth and mimicked the smile. Hiccup descended the couple of stairs of the camper, carefully closing the door behind him. "Hey, bud. Did you follow us all the way here?"

Toothless jumped down from the camper and landed softly next to Hiccup. He sniffed the metal of Hiccup's new prosthetic. "Yeah, it's taking some getting used to, bud." Toothless cooed and licked Hiccup in the face, knocking him onto his ass. "Argh, Toothless. That's disgusting."

The camper door creaked open. Astrid held the sheet up around her shoulders and rubbed her eyes. "Babe, come back to…is that a Night Fury?"

"Toothless. Astrid. Astrid. Toothless." Hiccup re-introduced the pair, a goofy smile on his face. "He must have followed us."

"How did he track us all the way here though?" Astrid wondered.

Hiccup shrugged. "Life finds a way I guess." He paused for a moment, stroking the Night Fury's snout. Toothless' eyes dilated and he wagged his tail happily. "Astrid, think of all we can learn from him!"

"Where are we going to keep a 25 foot dragon?" Astrid reiterated. Hiccup frowned. He petted Toothless' snout as he grinned once more. Astrid smirked and shook her head, "What's on your mind? I see those wheels turning."

"Wanna start a Dragon Training Academy with me?"

"A Dragon Training Academy? Where? Oh, no, Hiccup! What about our work? What about the research? The interns?"

"Maybe Fishlegs was right, maybe us digging up bones is an extinct process." Hiccup ushered her back into the camper and tossed a pair of jeans and a tank top at her. He pulled his favorite green hoodie over his head as Astrid grabbed a grey zip-up. "C'mon, Astrid! Think about all of the discoveries we made on the Isle of Berk and we were only there for three days!"

"And getting chased and almost killed most of the time," Astrid pointed out.

"Okay fair point, but imagine if we had more time with the dragons, if we could train them. I mean, Hammond said so-whoa," Hiccup, in his excitement lost his balance on his prosthetic. After recovering he continued, "Hammond said they didn't expect the Red Death to go rouge. If she hadn't, maybe things would have been different. Maybe if we could…"

"Whoa, whoa, Hiccup! Slow down. How do you know that dragons were…er are trainable?" Astrid asked. "What if we just got lucky and the dragons rallied together with us, the humans, to get rid of a common enemy? Now that the Red Death is gone, what if the dragons start…?"

Hiccup shrugged as they exited the camper once more to greet the Night Fury. "It would be one hell of a research project." He playfully scratched Toothless under the chin. The black dragon emitted a low purring sound and extended his neck further to show Hiccup exactly where to scratch. When Hiccup hit precisely the right spot, Toothless collapsed in a happy heap at Hiccup's feet. "Look, see? Learned something new already!"

Astrid covered her mouth with her hand as she giggled. "I can see that. But Hiccup," she rationalized, "Even if we do go on this whirlwind research project adventure back to the park, we still have two Night Fury skeletons to dig up, if not more. How much do you trust the interns to do that on their own?"

Hiccup pulled at his chin and hummed in agreement. "What if we finish this dig and then start the Academy? We could take the interns with us too!"

Astrid held up her hand to stop him. Sometimes Hiccup was a little too idealistic for the real world. "Babe, I'm not prepared to endanger the lives of the interns. Yours and mine, I mean, that's way different. If we think we're going to need extra help we'd need to recruit someone who has on site training. Or at the very least, has studying in the field with large African predators or something of the like."

"Or lived in Australia?"

"Works for me. Most everything in Australia can kill you. But the most dangerous things our interns have encountered recently was a tarantula, which on a scale of dangerous, isn't very high ranking." As the pair continued to brainstorm, Toothless walked in a small circle several times. He emitted a low, steady flame onto the ground to heat it up and then patted the flames out with the pads of his feet. Finally, he curled up on the warmed ground, wrapping his tail around his body.

"How about Fishlegs? He doesn't graduate until the end of this year, which would give us time to wrap up the dig."

"Fishlegs could work. But before we ask him, we have to talk to Hammond. We can't just go trespassing on the island."

"I'm sure she'll say yes, Astrid," Hiccup said confidently, but after catching his girlfriend's glare, he amended, "But we should definitely ask her about it anyway. Just to be sure." Astrid pursed her lips together and nodded slowly.

Hiccup walked over to Toothless and bent down, somewhat painfully next to the black dragon. "Whaddya say, bud? Want to teach us everything there is to know about dragons?" Toothless peaked through one eye at his human. Hiccup extended his open palm out in front of the dragon and waited for Toothless. The Night Fury stood up and nuzzled his snout against Hiccup's hand. Hiccup climbed onto Toothless' back and extended his hand to Astrid. "Do you trust me?"

"What are you, Aladdin?" she joked, but accepted the outstretched hand and climbed onto Toothless' back. "Where are we going anyway?"

"To convince you that a Dragon Training Academy is a fantastic idea!"

Toothless picked up on the enthusiasm in Hiccup's voice and took off, a little too abruptly for the humans' liking. Astrid frantically grabbed onto Hiccup and Hiccup reached for anything to keep him from falling off of the dragon as Toothless climbed higher and higher into the night sky.

"Toothless! Bud! S-slow down!" Toothless expanded his wings into a mock-parachute to catch the wind just right to put him and the humans into a hover above the clouds. He beat his wings slowly to keep on top of the updrafts. As he slowed down to a more comfortable flying speed for the humans, he could feel Hiccup loosen his grip. Astrid in turn, relaxed as well.

It wasn't the first time Astrid had been on a dragon, obviously, but it was the first time she had been able to relax and just enjoy the adrenaline of flying. She reached up her one hand to touch the clouds above them.

"Yeah, we should probably make saddles or something too…help us to hold on," Hiccup commented, mostly to himself. Astrid wasn't really paying attention anyway, for she was far too engrossed with the amazing view of the landscape below. Seeing the dragon skeletons being dug up at ground level was exciting, but seeing them from above made them seem all the more beautiful.

"Okay I'll admit it. This is pretty cool. He's pretty amazing."

Pain shot through Hiccup's upper arm. "What was that…" Astrid cut him off by kissing him. "You know you could just kiss me without attempting to break my bones all the time. I only have so many working limbs left," he gestured to his peg leg.

"Honey and the hatchet. Makes the kiss sweeter." Astrid winked. "So about this Dragon Training Academy…" she started as she secured her arms around his waist, "I want a Nadder."

Hiccup smiled, "As you wish, milady."

**_Fin. _**

[a/n] Well that's it for this installment. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading this crossover as much as I enjoyed writing it! Be on the lookout for the sequel soon!


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